


nerve - taekook au

by kenthedoll



Category: Nerve (2016), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Angst, Arguing, F/M, Fake Character Death, Fluff, Genderswap, Hacker!Seokjin, Hacking, Jin has a crush on Tae, Korean-American AU, Making Up, Mentions of Minor Character Death(s), Nerve (2016) - Freeform, OT7 are high school seniors, Pining, Player!Jimin, Player!Taehyung, Player!Yoongi, Plot Twist, Post Traumatic Stress, Sexual Situations, Stalking, Strangers to Enemies to Lovers, Unrequited Crush, Watcher!Hoseok, Watcher!Namjoon, Watcher!Seokjin, hacker!Namjoon, identity theft, mysterious!Jungkook, player!jungkook, several near death experiences, shy!taehyung, truth or dare (minus the truth), use of firearms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:15:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24644686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenthedoll/pseuds/kenthedoll
Summary: ***THIS STORY FEATURES GENDER-SWAPPED TAEHYUNG AND GENDER-SWAPPED JIMIN! IF YOU'RE NOT COMFORTABLE WITH THAT, PLEASE DON'T READ THIS!High school senior & Staten Island, New Yorker Tae Kim was tired of watching her life go by from the sidelines.Pressured by her friends, Tae decided to join Nerve, a popular online game that challenges players to accept a series of dares, in exchange for cash and glory. It wasn't long before the adrenaline-fueled competition required her to perform increasingly dangerous stunts.When Nerve begins to take a sinister turn, Tae finds herself in a high-stakes finale that ultimately determines the fate of her entire future.ORThe Bangtan/Taekook version of the movie Nerve starring Emma Roberts and David Franco.
Relationships: Jeon Jungkook/fem!Kim Taehyung, Original Male Character(s)/fem!Park Jimin, implied Min Yoongi/fem!Park Jimin
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE
> 
> THIS STORY IS A DIRECT COPY OF THE MOVIE "NERVE"
> 
> IT HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED FROM MY WATTPAD ACCOUNT (@ ken-the-doll) BECAUSE OF WATTPAD'S INCREASING RESTRICTIONS

**[URGENT: CalArts Admission Reminder]**

_Dear Tae,_

_Congratulations again! This is a reminder that your reply is due tomorrow. This could be the first day of the rest of your life. Click Accept and join the class of 2020!_

_Sincerely,_

_Chet Evans, Ph.D_

_Interim Deputy Director_

**_[REPLY]_ **

_To whom it may concern,_

_I regret to inform the admissions board that I must decline._

Tae sighed from behind her computer screen as she glanced from her half-written reply, to her desktop background; a photo of herself, her mother, and her brother on his graduation day.

They were both so happy that day. The last thing Tae wanted to do was disappoint her mother, which is why she had to decline the offer. 

Well, she didn't _have_ to.

You see, Tae is not the bravest person out there. Not by far.

**_[REPLY CONT.]_ **

_...I must decline because I'm a spineless loser and I'm too scared to tell my mom that I want to move out and leave Staten Island forever gnrjbnlnbktmglxdmbjhunlk xmb_

She didn't send it, of course. In fact she deleted the entire reply and exited her email because her attention was brought to a Facebook notification instead.

_Ryan Miller tagged you in a post._

It was a photo she had taken of him for the school paper. The caption read: _Go. Cougars. Pep rally today! Thanks for the photo, **Tae Kim**._

She may or may not have had a bit of a crush on the footballer, but it's not like it mattered. She knew she would never get the courage to talk to him. 

She could barely handle being close enough to him to take photos of him, how would she handle actually _talking?_

Liking the photo was also out of the question once a Skype call interrupted the idea.

**[INCOMING CALL FROM: Jiminie💖]**

**_[ACCEPT]_ **

"Good morning," Jimin smiled sleepily once she could see Tae's face. "What're you doing? Besides stalking Ryan, of course."

Tae laughed, "I'm reading the news, actually."

"Oh, reading the news? You are such a good liar," Jimin teased.

"Okay, how do you know I'm stalking Ryan?"

"Because I know you very very well," she replied. "But, wait. Did you tell your mom about _CalArts_ , yet?"

"Yeah, I told her. She's super excited for me to move clear across the country to go to a really expensive art school."

"Really?" Jimin raised a brow.

Tae rolled her eyes with a pitiful laugh, "no."

"No?"

"I just... I haven't found the right time to tell her."

"Ooh! Nerve is starting! Sorry, this is really important," Jimin segued the conversation suddenly.

"What's Nerve?"

"It's a game. Here, just click on the video," she told Tae after sending a link through their Facebook chat.

Tae did as told, curiously clicking the link and allowing another window to open. Music began to play and a welcoming screen greeted her with a robotic voice.

_Welcome to Nerve: New York City._

_Nerve is a 24 hour game. Like truth or dare, minus the truth._

_Watchers pay to watch._

_Players play to win cash and glory._

_Are you a watcher or a player?_

_Are you a watcher or a player?_

_Are you a watcher or a player?_

The voice repeated itself.

"It's cool, right?" Jimin asked her.

"This looks.. very sketchy," Tae laughed a little. "Is this legal?"

"I dunno," she replied, "probably not. But, just do it, sign up and Watch, time's a tickin'."

"Okay. Signing up," Tae droned flatly, "look, this is me signing up to Watch you."

"Tae! You have to sign up and Watch me! It's very important that I have Watchers."

"I got to go. My mom just got home, I'll sign up after breakfast, I promise," she gave in. 

"Thank you," Jimin smiled, "love you, I'll see you in a little bit."

"Love you, bye," Tae told her, tapping the side of her nostril.

"Bye," Jimin replied, doing the same before hanging up.

-

"I mean Jimin hasn't gotten into any schools yet and she doesn't even care," Tae tried to get her mother to relax about her college applications. 

"She doesn't have to care, she has a trust fund, and _you_ have something far more valuable than that," her mother replied, joining her in the kitchen.

"Here we go," Tae sighed as she flipped a pancake on the stove.

"You have drive, you have focus," she listed off, "you have a scholarship to a local college, and even though we can't afford the dorm, you get to have _me_ as your new college roommate!"

Tae pursed her lips. She knew her mother meant well, she just didn't want to stay in New York any longer. She wanted change, a fresh breath of air, a clean slate to be whoever and whatever she wanted to be.

"Actually, I um..." Tae started as her mother moved to sit at the table. "I had kind of a cool idea about that. What if we fixed up Taesuk's room and... listed you on _Airbnb_ or something?"

She didn't seem too thrilled by the idea, but she didn't say anything, so Tae sat down and kept speaking, "maybe it's time we go through his stuff and give some of it to _Goodwill_? A-And I could give you some space--"

"I don't want space," her mother interrupted, "I just want you."

Tae felt drained of any hopes she had for California. 

"Okay," Tae gave in as she usually did. "I-I'm totally down with commuting and I can... I can just get my reading done on the ferry," she nodded sadly.

"Yeah, that'll work, right?"

"Yeah..."


	2. one

"Here's this," Tae approached Seokjin Kim, one of her best friends who worked on the school paper with her.

The pep rally was about to begin, so she snapped photos of the football team in the locker room just before their game.

When she handed Jin an SD card full of photos, he exchanged it for a completely empty one.

"Don't you think it's a little unbalanced if every single picture is of Ryan Miller?" Jin mumbled as she pushed the card into the slot in her camera.

"It's not my fault he's on the team," Tae replied, focusing the camera on the team just as they broke their huddle and began to sprint outside towards the field.

"Alright, come on, careful," Jin said, gently pulling her to the side so she wouldn't be trampled.

Regardless of this, Tae ran off with the rest of them, leaving Jin to sigh and jog to catch up.

They met again by the bleachers where they watched as the cheerleaders had also arrived on the field. Though something was different about the squad.

There was a new member.

"Is that _Jimin_?" Jin raised a brow, eyeing her up and down.

He had to admit she looked great in green.

Tae spotted her soon after, a bit confused until she saw Jimin's cellphone and it clicked. She must've gotten dared.

"Hobi!" Jimin called out, running up to the bleachers. Then she was handing their friend Hoseok Jung her phone. "Record this for me?" she asked.

"Of course. You're on," he told her as he pressed **_[LIVE]_** and Jimin smiled into the camera.

"Hey, Watchers! It's _JIMINIE_. I'm counting on you to get me to the final round! So don't let _me_ down and I won't let _you_ down, I promise," she blew a kiss to the camera before running off to join the squad again.

Hoseok kept filming and Jin & Tae started to notice that a lot more people were starting to film her as well.

All the way up to the end of the routine where Jimin stood front and center, turned away from the crowd, and lifted her skirt.

Jimin Park mooned the school for five hundred dollars.

**[DARE COMPLETE]**

**[+$500]**

-

The dares are created by the Watchers for the Players to complete, which means anything could happen.

 _Literally anything_.

From mooning the school, to cliff diving, all the way to a player by the screen name _AGUSTD_ pulling himself on a skateboard via the bumper of a police car.

"I have so many Watchers now!" Jimin said happily around a straw, sipping soda from a cup.

She had changed from the cheer uniform into her own clothes and met up with her group of friends at the diner down the street.

It felt like the entire school was there as well, but that might've just been because the football team always ate there to celebrate a good game.

"Yeah, you do," Hoseok said from over her shoulder, munching on a french fry.

"I just need to get into that little box," Jimin sighed, referring to the top ten. Soon enough those ten will become two, and Jimin _really_ wants to be one of them. "Who's in first place?"

"Apparently some guy named Jason," Hobi read from his own phone before showing her, "I guess he put peanut butter on his dick and let his dog lick it off."

"I could do that," Jimin shrugged casually.

"You don't have a dog, Chim. Or a penis," he told her, then felt his phone vibrate. "Ooh, they're coming up with your next dare!"

"What is it? I need it to be flashy like the peanut butter thing," she said as he gently nudged her aside so he could sit next to her.

Tae and Jin joined them then on the opposite side of the booth.

"That's so weird. How do they know you're afraid of heights?" Tae asked Jimin as she caught a glimpse of the comments on Hoseok's phone.

Hoseok was a Watcher by the screen name _J-HOPE_ who spent most of his Nerve time filming Jimin and helping her get more Watchers.

"Wait, what?" Jimin asked.

"It goes through all your profiles, finds your info, and puts it in your Nerve account," he explained.

"Hm. That's creepy," Jimin chuckled, not seeming to care too much about it.

"Chim, you just got _suspended_. I thought you were done playing Nerve?" Tae shook her head in confusion.

"Hell no! The girl who won Seattle now has _millions_ of followers. She is insta-famous!"

"Who cares?" Tae rolled her eyes around a bite from her cheeseburger.

"I do," she replied. "Tae, I don't expect you to understand. I'm an adrenaline junky, you like to stay within your comfort zone, that's fine."

"That's not true, what about that pole dancing class we took?"

Jin and Hobi glanced at each other, then at the girls, but tried not to seem like they were interested in the topic.

"Tae, I dragged you there and you sat in the corner and watched."

"I'm a visual learner," Tae rebuffed.

"Why are you attacking her?" Jin asked then.

"I'm not attacking her, Jin. Life is just passing you by, Tae. You need to learn to take risks every once in a while," Jimin shrugged, not meaning any harm by it.

"I do take risks!"

"Okay, fine. Let's just say, hypothetically, you're playing Nerve. What would be a good Nerve dare for Tae?" she asked the table.

"Make out with Ryan Miller," Hoseok whisper-yelled, nodding his head towards the footballer who was sitting just a few tables away.

Jimin smirked, Jin rolled his eyes, and Tae gaped.

"Okay, baby steps, baby steps," Hobi compromised, "just _talk_ to him."

"What? I--"

"He probably likes you, too. You'll never know if you don't talk to him," Jimin tried to convince her.

"Okay, if we were actually playing, it would be put to a vote. So who wants to see Tae mackin' on Ryan Miller?" Hoseok raised his hand first, Jimin's following soon after.

"Yes, yes," Jimin counted herself and Hobi. "I assume no," she said when she pointed to Jin.

"I abstain," he said.

"Thank you," Tae told him.

"Not surprised," Jimin said at the same time, but continued, "alright, you've been dared. Do you accept your dare, Tae?"

"Say yes. Say yes," Hobi nodded excitedly.

"What's the point? We're graduating. I--"

"All you have to do is say hi," Jimin said.

"I don't _want_ to say hi to him," Tae shook her head as a final answer.

"Fine," Jimin nodded. "I love you so much, Tae, but you're a Watcher. So watch me do it for you," she said, standing before Tae could get much of a word in.

"Nonono, Chim--" she tried but Jimin was at his table in a split second.. and people were filming again.

"Hey, Jimin," the linebacker flirted, "why don't you show us the front next time?"

"You first, Chuck. I've heard it's _really_ big," Jimin replied sarcastically, mocking his dick size even further by holding her thumb and index finger really close together.

The rest of the team laughed but Jimin didn't care about them, she simply tapped Ryan's shoulder and said, "hey, Ryan. Do you have a girlfriend right now?"

"Actually, I--"

"It's not for me, it's for a friend," Jimin explained further and that seemed to make him lose interest.

"Well, which friend?"

Then Jimin pointed directly at Tae and all eyes were on her. She sat there in silence, lips parted dumbly and unable to meet anyone's gaze but his.

He glanced back for maybe two seconds before saying, "nah, she's not my type."

This earned a few laughs from the team and the Watchers who were filming nearby.

"And you are not _nearly_ as hot as you think you are," Jimin replied to him as Tae grabbed her backpack. "You're a douchebag."

"Wait, Tae, come on," Hoseok tried, but she stood from the booth and walked out as fast as she possibly could.

"Tae. Tae!" Jimin tried.

"Just let her go," Jin shook his head. "That was cool," he said sarcastically.

"I was just trying to help her."

"That's not helping."

-

 **Jiminie** 💖 **:** _I'm sorry Tae_

 **Jiminie** 💖 **:** _You're too smart for him anyways._ 🤓🤓🤓

-

 **Jin** 😇 **:** _Screw Jimin. Not everyone has to be a Player._

-

And Jin was right, not everyone _had_ to be a Player.

But Jimin had another thing coming if she thought Tae was going to sit back in the corner again.

Tae was _done_ being a Watcher and she was _done_ being pestered about it by Jimin every day.

Maybe it was time she showed that she had what it took to play with the big kids.

-

**N E R V E**

**[WATCHER]** OR **[PLAYER]**

**_[PLAYER]_ **

_Hello, welcome to Nerve._

_You have chosen_ **_PLAYER_ ** _._

_Nerve is a direct democracy._

**_WATCHERS_ ** _decide your dares._

 _The two_ **_PLAYERS_ ** _with the most_ **_WATCHERS_ ** _by the end of regulation will advance to the final round. Where the winner takes all._

 **_WATCHERS_ ** _can watch from anywhere, but they are encouraged to film live. So don't be alarmed._

_There are three rules._

**_ONE:_ ** _all dares must be filmed on the_ **_PLAYER_ ** _'s phone._

 **_TWO:_ ** _there are only two ways to be eliminated._ **_FAIL_ ** _or_ **_BAIL._ **

**_THREE:_ ** _snitches get stitches._

_Thank you for keeping Nerve a secret._

**_Good luck._ **

Tae sat back at stared at her computer until her phone chirped from beside the keyboard.

A thumbprint appeared, captioned: **[ENTER I.D.]**

Not thinking much of it, Tae pressed her thumb to the screen.

**[ARE YOU READY FOR YOUR FIRST DARE?]**

**_[ACCEPT]_ **

Within milliseconds, any information about Tae and her family was added to her Nerve profile.

And to the Watchers, she was now _TAETAE95_


	3. two

"Jin!" Tae said excitedly into the phone when he answered.

"I'm pulling up outside, what's so urgent?"

"We have to get to the diner."

"Why?"

"I signed up for Nerve and that's where my first dare is," she explained as she pushed open the exit door of her apartment building and was met with Jin and his car.

They hung up and Tae frowned because Jin looked disappointed in her.

"You signed up as a Player?" he asked, stuffing his phone in his pocket and climbing into his car.

Tae got in the passenger seat, but didn't say anything, only confirming Jin's thoughts.

"Oh, man," Jin huffed.

"What, is it so hard to believe?" 

Jin made an exploding gesture with his hand, "boom," he added, implying that it was mind-blowing to him.

Tae thought that was the end of it and hoped Jin would either stay silent or change the subject, but neither thing happened.

"You know some kid supposedly died in Seattle playing Nerve?" he glanced over at her as he drove.

Tae rolled her eyes, "oh, I don't buy that. If kids were dying, the game would be shut down."

"No, you can't shut it down. There's not a single server," Jin replied. 

"What does that mean?"

"Everybody that logs onto the game _becomes_ a new server. So it's impossible to turn the game off."

"How do you know so much about this game? You've never even Played," Tae asked curiously, a little ticked off because one second everyone wants her to join and the next she's crazy for it.

"I just spend a lot of time on the dark web, alright?"

"A lot of time on the dark web? Is that right, hacker boy?"

"Yes! Yes, that is right. You're only accessing ten percent of the internet, you know?" Jin sighed exasperatedly. "Why are you even doing this? Seriously, it's dangerous. Is it because of Jimin?"

Tae gaped at him, "this is not about Jimin," she shook her head, because it wasn't! Okay, maybe a _little_ , but even if it was _all_ about Jimin, Tae didn't think it mattered. 

What was the harm in a little game of truth or dare?

"This is not about Jimin."

"It's just not like you," Jin shrugged.

"That's the point," Tae replied and that seemed to shut him up.

At least for the rest of the car ride.

When they finally arrived at the diner, her dare was immediately given to her. Jin had explained that the GPS component allowed the game to alert her with dares immediately upon her arrival to whatever destination she was given.

**[KISS A STRANGER FOR FIVE SECONDS]**

"Kiss a stranger for five seconds?" Tae read aloud, showing Jin the screen.

His brows furrowed in distaste, "a stranger? What? Tae, I'll _give_ you $100 if you want it that badly."

Tae didn't reply to that, even if she wanted to tell him that it wasn't about the money at all. That was definitely a bonus, but she wanted to do this for herself.

She wanted to prove that she could step out of her comfort zone. That she could be more than the scaredy-cat Jimin thought she was.

_**[ACCEPT]** _

Jin rolled his eyes from behind her but followed her deeper into the diner. "So you're just gonna kiss some random person?" he asked, but it was more of a statement than a question.

The first table they passed was being used by a man & woman, most likely on a date. Tae shook her head, "has a girlfriend," she said to herself and kept looking.

The next person she locked eyes with was an elderly man who seemed nice, but again, Tae kept looking.

Her phone chirped in her hand.

**[HURRY UP]**

Tae scoffed at that, unaware that there was a time limit. She had been given two minutes originally, but that had dwindled down to forty-five seconds.

"Just kiss that guy," Jin nodded towards a table with a middle-aged man who was sitting alone. 

"Okay. I'm gonna kiss that guy," she told him, but it seemed to Jin like she was trying to convince herself more than him.

The man's plate was clear of food and he was pulling his wallet out to pay, so Tae knew that her window was closing soon.

"I'm gonna do it," she nodded, but then the man was walking past her, his money on the table, and she couldn't stop him simply because of nerves. No pun intended.

One table back however, was another man in a leather jacket with a book in front of his face. 

"What about that guy? He reads," Tae told Jin who just shrugged.

"Make a choice. Clock's ticking."

Tae glanced down at her phone, finding thirty seconds left. "Alright. I'm kissing that guy," she nodded. "You sit here, tell me when you're rolling, okay?"

She handed Jin her cellphone and he sat in the booth that was right beside them. 

She just stood there however.

"Is this mission impossible now?" Jin joked, "let's go."

This shook Tae out of her thoughts and must've put some pep in her step because she finally started to walk towards the guy.

" _T-To The Lighthouse_ ," Tae began when she made it to the table. "That's my favorite book," she smiled, her hands beginning to shake a little when he moved the book and revealed his face.

His... his _really handsome_ face.

His eyes were dark and his hair was chocolatey and his lips were perfect frames for his cute little smile. Tae was completely frozen.

"Really?" he asked curiously, his voice was very relaxing and warm. 

Tae's lips parted, but she didn't know what to say. She glanced back at Jin who was recording. Her phone began to beep in his hands.

He gestured for her to hurry as time was running out quickly.

"Please tell me they get to the lighthouse at the end?" he asked then, not seeming to mind her awkwardness which was pretty cool if she was being honest.

"Um--"

"Actually, don't tell me. Wait. Okay, just tell me real quick," the guy laughed, his full smile making Tae's heart pound in her chest.

"Y-Yeah, they do," she nodded in response, "but that's not really what it's about.. th-the lighthouse means something different to each character. It basically represents the thing they want most in life and I'm sorry that I'm geeking out and ruining the story."

He shook his head, the same smile on his face, "nah, I was the one who asked."

Tae remembered her task, glancing back at Jin again only for him to say, "7 seconds!"

Tae took the quickest breath in the history of breathing, slid into the booth, grabbed his shoulders, and kissed him immediately.

After the five seconds was up and the dare was completed, Jin told her, "done," but she hadn't pulled away so he repeated it, "done.. _done_!"

Tae pulled away then and her face was completely flushed. 

"Okay..." the guy smiled, the same red flush in his cheeks.

"Okay, bye!" Tae rushed out of the booth and over to Jin's, sinking down low enough in the seat so she couldn't be seen by the guy she'd just smooched on camera.

**[DARE COMPLETE]**

**[+$100]**

"Oh my God, I can't believe I just did that," she breathed out.

Jin had mirrored her movements and sunken lower into the seat. "Oh, God, why am _I_ embarrassed?" he asked himself, scoffing self deprecatingly.

"Did you get it?" she asked and Jin slid her phone across the table.

"Yeah, I got it. It was like a mini series. I got all six episodes."

Tae caught her breath and slid to the end of the seat to sneak a glance at the guy she was dared to kiss. But he was gone.

"Where did he go?" she asked Jin.

"I have no clue," he replied, both of them looking around for any sign of him.

Tae figured he left and she was a little disappointed that she couldn't get better acquainted with him, but she'd get over it.

She picked up her phone then and read aloud, " _Tae, $100 has been wired to your account_. Should I check?" she looked up at her friend.

"You should totally check," he nodded but before she could respond, someone was tapping the side of a glass with a piece of silverware.

Their attention was captivated by the cute guy from her dare. He was standing by the jukebox with a nervous look on his face, his thumb punching in the code for a song.

" _Every time I look into your lovely eyes_.." he sang along and he was actually on key and everything.

"What is he doing?" Tae raised a brow as her and Jin watched the stranger dance around the tables and sing to their fellow diners. 

"No clue," Jin replied, their eyes glued to him.

" _I see a love that money just can't buy_ ," he continued, a few cellphones were recording him by then and he smiled cutely into one of them before moving along through the next row of tables.

" _One look_ ," he sang as he climbed up onto a chair and smoothly tipped it back and onto the floor, " _from you.. I drift away_."

Then he was up on the tables in Jin & Tae's row, hopping from one table to another. But he didn't take his eyes off of Tae's.

"Is he singing to me?" she whispered to Jin, genuinely curious.

Jin glanced backward to find a few Watchers filming.

"It's a dare," he told her.

" _I pray.. that you.._ " the Player _definitely_ pointed to Tae, " _are here to stay_."

She watched him sing and gradually make his way closer to her booth. She was smiling really big, what Jimin called her 'box smile', and she couldn't stop if she tried.

" _Anything you want, you got it_ ," the guy sang, the entire diner was cheering him on by then. " _Anything you need, you got it_."

" _Anything at all, you got it... baby_!" he held the note and hopped down when the song ended. "You got it," he told her.

The people around them lit up with applause and praise and it made the Player laugh, which made Tae's heart pound against her ribcage again.

A Watcher approached him and handed a phone over.

"Good job."

"Thank you," he replied, confirming that the phone was his and that it was in fact a dare.

"You finished your dare! Congratulations," Tae smiled up at him.

He nodded, "back at ya."

"Mine was totally embarrassing, but hey, at least I got a hundred bucks, right?" she chuckled.

"By the way, I'm sorry if I seemed rude or anything, I really wasn't expecting that either," the Player admitted as he slotted himself in the booth beside Jin. "I was told to sit in that booth, then some kid came in and handed me the book."

" _To The Lighthouse_ , yeah, my favorite book," she replied, thinking about the probability of this being a coincidence or not.

"Yeah, because the game hacked into your Facebook page," Jin told her. "It knows everything about you, Tae."

"Your name's Tae? I like that," the Player told her.

"Yeah, I guess her parents named her that 'cause it means stability and charm.. or something," Jin needlessly over-explained and Tae pursed her lips in embarrassment. 

It was like bringing an older brother on a blind date.

"Yeah, I guess my mom was expecting somebody else," she added, only half-joking.

"I dunno about that," the Player shrugged, "that was some kiss."

Tae avoided his eyes when she smiled at that.

"But uh, I've got a game to Play. Goodnight to you guys," he told them, standing from the booth. He took a fry from the plate that had been sitting there, "thank you," he began to walk away, munching on the fry.

Tae's phone chirped on the tabletop and the Player stopped in his tracks at the exact same time. He pulled his phone from his pocket. Apparently he had also received a notification.

They read their dares at the same time and when he turned back to face them, all of them shared confused looks. 

"What is it?" Jin asked.

The two Players turned their phones.

**[GO TO THE CITY WITH HIM]**

**[TAKE HER TO THE CITY]**

"I guess the Watchers like us together," the nameless Player said.

"But wait, you can't even go to the city, right?" Jin shook his head at Tae.

"Yeah, no, I can't go to the city," Tae confirmed. "I'm not even really Playing, I was just doing one dare."

"You sure? It's two hundred bucks," the Player attempted to sway her.

"She's sure, dude," Jin stared up at him and Tae glared at Jin.

"He always tell you what to do?" the Player asked bravely.

"No," Tae answered, still staring at Jin. "No, he doesn't."

Jin sat in awkward silence.

"Well... I'll be outside, if you change your mind. It was nice to meet you, Tae," he smirked at her. "See you, man," he added to Jin and then he was gone.

"He thought that those were our fries," Jin laughed quietly, hoping to ease the very obvious tension.

Tae didn't want to have any more negativity, however, so she let it go and sighed, bringing the subject back to Nerve. "I could really use two hundred bucks."

"You're not going to the city," Jin told her. "You said one dare."

Tae shook her head with an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry," she said, standing from the booth and jogging out of the diner.

"What?" Jin called after her, but she was gone.


	4. three

"Was hoping you'd come," the Player said from where he sat waiting on his motorcycle. He had a matte golden helmet on the seat in front of him and a sparkly silver one tucked like a football under his arm.

Tae approached him slowly and said, "I'm just warning you... I don't think that I'd make a very good partner. I'm not the daredevil type," she laughed quietly. "You should team up with my friend Jimin, actually. She's _obsessed_ with playing _Nerve_."

The Player shrugged, holding the silver helmet out to her. "But the Watchers want me to team up with _you_."

Tae looked down at her phone, the dare displayed on the screen in neon yellow capitals.

She sighed as she kept thinking about _CalArts_ and the costs of traveling. $200 could _really_ help her right about now.

"The second that I get uncomfortable, I'm out," she told him.

"That's fair," he nodded.

So she accepted the helmet, and he helped her put it on and sit down, before he pulled on his own and promptly rode out of the parking lot.

-

**[DARE COMPLETE]**

**[+$700]**

"Yes! My Watchers are skyrocketing!" Jimin cheered from downtown. Her and Hoseok had been invited to a party and she figured she might as well complete a few dares while they're out. 

"Who's your favorite Player?" she sang as she approached Hobi who was watching his own phone.

"Well, I was gonna say _you_ , but.." he replied, turning his phone to show her Tae's Nerve livestream, "now I don't know."

"Is that Tae?" Jimin asked, her smile fading slightly.

"Yeah, she's playing now and she's actually got a lot of Watchers!" he told her, happy for their friend.

-

"Hey, try screaming," the Golden Player said over the sound of the engine as they pulled up to a stoplight.

"What?" she laughed, holding onto him tightly.

"Just do it, let it out," he laughed with her. And right as the light turned green, he shouted out, "WOO!" before they zoomed off.

Not soon after, Tae tilted her head back and screamed excitedly.

"There you go," he said, feeling her tighten her grip around him the faster they went.

But sadly the fun had to end when they pulled up to their destination.

"Alright, this is it," he told her as they parked outside of an expensive clothing store. 

They pulled off their helmets and he secured them to the bike.

"Am I supposed to go in with you?" she asked curiously.

"Uh.." he looked at his phone and stepped closer to her, "doesn't say anything about that."

"Well, thank you for the lift," she nodded politely. 

"You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I'm uh... I'm tired, so I'm probably just gonna make my way back home."

The Golden Player's phone beeped with another dare. "This was fun," he told her honestly, then gestured to his phone. "I gotta go do this."

"Yeah, definitely," Tae nodded in response, waving goodbye even though he had already turned around and started walking into the store. She watched him until she could no longer see his broad, leather-clad shoulders.

Then she looked at her surroundings, hoping to find a bus stop when her phone chirped not long after.

**[TRY ON THIS DRESS FOR $500]**

**[REJECT]** OR **[ACCEPT]**

Tae looked at the time, taking note of the fact that her mother would be at work for hours.

Maybe there was time for her to go single Player after all.

_**[ACCEPT]** _

"Excuse me?" Tae greeted an employee who took one look at her Staten Island letterman jacket and acted as if he were above her. "Sorry, do you know where I can find this dress?" she brought up her phone to show him a photo of the sparkly emerald piece, when a call began to come through.

"Your mom is calling," the man said flatly, as if he was bored.

"Shit," Tae mumbled, deciding on what to do in a split second, considering she had only a minute left, and quickly declined the call. 

She brought the photo up to show him again.

"That's _very_ expensive," he told her, but she just stared at him, so he continued, "Couture, fourth floor."

"Thanks," she mumbled, jogged to the elevator, and slapped the four button, watching time tick away as the elevator slowly carried her to the right floor.

As soon as she was out, she was scanning the floor for the dress, zipping between racks and sections until she finally found it. With fifty seconds left.

She turned the price tag, eyes widening at the four digit number printed on it. "What?" she whisper-yelled to herself. She could only imagine having enough money to pay for something like this.

Regardless, she reached for the zipper and slowly pulled it down.

"Please don't undress the mannequins," an employee asked her. 

"Sorry," she said, immediately removing her hands from the shimmery fabric.

"Would you like to try this on?"

Tae nodded silently.

"Let me see if we have it in your size," she told her, beginning to walk away.

"Please, hurry! I'm late for a-a party," Tae called after her.

"Cute," the woman replied.

She returned with the proper size and with Tae only having thirty seconds left, she grabbed the dress and zoomed into a dressing room, pulling the curtains shut.

She dropped her bag and phone and began to strip, not even caring if the world could see her panties with the tiny panda bear on the butt.

Her phone kept vibrating with comments and she didn't even want to think about reading them as she pulled the dress from the hanger, stepped into it, pull it on, and zipped it up.

She grabbed her phone with two seconds left and filmed herself from head to toe. "Okay, dressed," she panted.

The clock reached zero and nothing happened, making Tae raise a brow. 

"Everything okay?" another employee asked as they walked by.

"Oh, everything is lovely, thank you," she nodded, waiting for the room to be clear before looking at herself in the mirror.

She stepped closer and turned to see the back of it, admiring her figure and undoing her ponytail, letting her hair drape over her shoulders. 

"Hey.." she talked to her reflection, "what's your email number? I-I mean what's your.. what's your info?" she laughed, unaware of a person exiting a dressing room behind her.

"Tae.." 

She whipped around so quick she almost slipped on the tile, but somehow managed not to. It was the Golden boy. 

"Hey," he smiled.

"Hi," she returned one.

"You uh.. you look very pretty," he told her, giving her a once over.

"Thanks. So do you," she said when she fully took in his sharp attire. "I mean you look-- you know, hot or handsome or... one of those."

His phone beeped in his hand with his next dare.

"Do you know what we're supposed to do now?" Tae asked curiously.

"The Watchers would like me to complete your ensemble, mademoiselle," he aimed his camera down towards her shoes; just a simple pair of Adidas.

So Tae looked at her phone to find her side of the dare, where she was finally able to see his screen name.

**[LET _K00K1E_ CHOOSE YOUR SHOES]**


	5. four

Jin sighed from his same spot at the diner, downloading _Nerve_ and entering the welcome screen.

 **[WATCHER]** OR **[PLAYER]**

"Neither. Is that an option?" Jin said to himself as he looked between the two choices. There was no way in hell he was gonna Play.

**_[WATCHER]_ **

**[WATCH YOUR FAVORITE PLAYERS. $19.99 FOR 24 HOURS]**

**_[OK]_ **

"Alright, how about my first born son, too?" Jin muttered, scanning his thumb onto the screen.

**[WELCOME: _Seokjin Kim_. YOU ARE NOW: _ANON27543_ ]**

"Whatever. Okay," he rolled his eyes, and when he was able to finally search for users, he typed in Tae's name and found any video featuring _TAETAE95_.

The latest being the shoes Golden boy had to pick out for her.

"What are you doing, Tae?" Jin shook his head.

_"How much are these, sir?" she asked, putting on her best posh accent._

_"Those will be $900, madam," Kook replied, as he was filming her shoes, then raised his phone's camera up to her face._

_"Well, in that case, I'll take two. One for the city and one for the Hamptons."_

_-_

"So, I'll see you downstairs?" Kook asked as they walked to the dressing rooms together. The heels had been put back and her Adidas were laced up on her feet again.

"Sure," Tae nodded in reply as they separated into their rooms. But when she looked to the floor to find that the room was completely empty, her smile fell right from her face. "What?" she said aloud, looking under the little chair and finding nothing.

Figuring she may have gone into the wrong room, she quickly moved into the next, and then the one on the other side of it. But still nothing was to be found.

She walked back out and searched beneath the furniture in the main area, but the carpet was absolutely spotless.

"Excuse me, Miss?" Tae quickly asked an employee who passed by. "Did you move any clothes from in there?" she pointed to the room with her thumb.

"Of course not," the woman replied politely and Tae's stomach flipped.

She rushed back into the room and pulled the curtains shut, pacing the small space. "Oh, my God, this isn't happening," she shook her head, her chest rising and falling with stressful breaths.

"Tae... Tae?" came the Golden boy's voice, so she pushed through the curtains, grabbed his arm, and pulled him into the dressing room with her.

"Did you take my stuff?" she immediately asked, her eyes wide with panic, "I mean, my _wallet_ , my _clothes_ \-- _everything's_ _gone_!"

"No, my stuff is gone, too," he shook his head in response. 

Then, their phones simultaneously chimed in.

**[LEAVE THE STORE]**

Tae looked up at Kook, who was looking at his phone in distaste.

"No," she shook her head at him.

"We'll just make a run for it. Come on," he tried to grab her hand and pull her along, but she tugged it away.

"No! I am not _shoplifting_!" she whispered exasperatedly.

"We don't have a choice. Let's go," he gestured for her to get a move on.

Tae sighed at her phone, the price was calling her name. She thought for a moment, rereading the dare and finally saying, "okay, _technically_ , it just says we have to leave the store."

Kook's lips slowly raised into a smirk, once he understood what she was getting at.

"Right...?" she asked, biting down into her lip out of embarrassment. 

-

So they quickly & awkwardly stripped once again, facing away from each other as they did so, as if that would help anything--as if it would change the fact that they were about to run, half-naked, through an expensive clothing store to the outdoors, where God and everybody could see them. 

Kook poked his head through the curtains first, scanning the area before stepping out of the room. He was naked save for the black boxers he sported and his shoes & socks. 

The same went for Tae only instead of boxers, she had her panda panties and her (not at all matching) bra. 

She sort of wished she would've picked something a bit cooler looking, like the set from _Victoria's Secret_ that Jimin had given her for her birthday, but she wasn't exactly expecting to be undressing herself that night. 

At least, not in _this_ context.

So she let Kook take the lead and followed him through the many confusing sections of the store. He checked around corners and looked out for her, trying his best to keep her somewhat hidden behind him, and his hand was gripping hers, but their fingers weren't laced. 

Was it bad that Tae sort of wished they were?

"Oh, geez," she stopped in her tracks, stopping Kook as well, when they were met with a couple of passing shoppers.

"This way, come on," Kook told her, sprinting towards the hallway where the elevator was. Tae ran after him, her arms held tightly at her sides to avoid excess jiggling while Kook repeatedly slammed his hand against the down arrow.

It was bad enough they were seen just walking around like this. She didn't want to flash them, too.

The door opened when Tae finally caught up and when they got inside, Kook's fingers mashed the 'close door' button as well.

They stood side by side as the door slid shut and they were left alone with nothing but the lyric-less tunes that played over the speakers.

Tae still had her arms wrapped around herself, one around her waist, one around her chest.

Kook's lips were pressed together firmly, an uncomfortable smile on his face to match the embarrassed red flush to his face and chest.

The elevator reached the ground floor and the doors seemed to open before the two could even blink. Two customers stood waiting on the other side.

"Uh--!" Tae started, waiting for Kook to do something because she had no idea what to do.

He took her hand again, slipping between the two people quickly and pulling her along.

They simply chuckled at the Players, finding it amusing, rather than inappropriate, as the pair sprinted around furniture and between people & mannequins.

A few cellphones were out, but at this point the two were more worried about completing the dare in time than they were about being exposed.

Kook pulled his phone out and recorded himself running, telling Tae to do the same so her part of the dare would count.

Despite the people filming outside, they managed to exit the building in time. 

**[DARE COMPLETE]**

They jogged to his bike, finding a bag from the same store hanging from the throttle.

"Oh, God, please tell me those are our clothes," Tae panted, choosing to ignore the honks and shouts they were receiving.

Kook pulled it open, revealing sparkly green fabric. "They kind of are," he smiled, setting the bag on the seat and pulling out the blazer from the suit he had tried on. 

"Are these stolen?" Tae asked as she held the dress in her hands.

He searched the bag, finding a paper at the bottom. "There's a receipt."

"So we get to keep them?" she asked excitedly, making Kook grin fondly at her.

"All yours," he said and they got dressed as quickly as possible. He zipped her up before dealing with his cuff links.

"Who paid for these?" Tae asked when she turned to face him again.

"Probably one of the Watchers with daddy's credit card," Kook replied with a laugh as he finished his look by fixing his pant legs around his shoes.

Tae squealed a little when she looked at her phone, her boxy smile stretching across her face. 

"What is it?"

"Look!" she showed him her phone screen.

**[+$2,500]**

"Nice!" Kook praised.

"Dolla dolla bill y'all," Tae celebrated her success with a song lyric and a little bit of enthusiastic jumping.

"Wait, was that a Wu-Tang reference?" 

"Staten Island, represent."

-

"Hey, Chim," Jin greeted when he answered her phone call.

"Jin, what does Tae think she's doing?" she asked him from the passenger seat of Hoseok's car. "Have you ever parallel parked in your life?" she said to the driver just as his front bumper grazed the car in front of them.

"I got this, girl," Hobi shook his head.

"I have no idea. Why are you asking me? I'm not her boyfriend," Jin muttered as he drove home.

"Who's this biker she's teamed up with?" Jimin asked as she got out of the car and waited for Hoseok on the sidewalk.

"No idea. She just ditched me," Jin told her. "She's doing what everyone thinks is best for herself."

"And what exactly is that?"

"Jimin! Chim!" Hoseok called from the sunroof of his car, giving up on parking correctly. They were close enough to the curb, it would be fine. "Tae is in the top 10!"

"What?" Jimin raised her brows.

"She's in the top 10."

"Tae's in the top 10?" Jimin told Jin in surprise.

"Yeah, I know," he replied.

"How is that even possible? How many Watchers does she have?" Jimin asked incredulously.

"Um.." Hobi looked it up, "4,471," he raised his brows, impressed.

"How many do I have?"

"6,806."

"Oh, okay. I have a lot more," Jimin seemed relieved, but Hoseok didn't call her on it. "Jin, I really don't think that Tae can handle this. I'm actually really worried about her."

"Me, too," he nodded.

"So get your ass to this party and help me, okay?" she told him.

"Alright, I'm on the way right now."

-

Kook & Tae's phones chimed at the same time, which didn't surprise either of them if they were being completely honest.

It seemed like the Watchers were going to keep them together until they were bored of it, and they didn't seem bored at all. 

Sometimes partnerships end up working out, but there can only be one winner per city, so eventually one of them would have to fail or bail.

"What now?" Tae asked, not bothering to pull her phone out if he could just read it aloud.

"St. Mark's in ten?" Kook turned his around to show her.

**[GO TO ST. MARK'S WITH TAE]**


	6. five

"What happens if I bail?" Tae asked simply for educational purposes as they stood outside of St. Mark's tattoo & piercing parlor.

"You lose everything you've already earned," Kook answered simply.

"My mom would _kill_ me."

"So what are you gonna do?" he asked with a teasing smile, making her want to kiss him again. Only better this time.

Tae looked up at the neon sign, then at her phone.

**[LET KOOK PICK YOUR TATTOO]**

She had literally everything to lose, so it didn't take too much longer for her to decide.

She led the way inside, but Kook did most of the talking. He was apparently already acquainted with the artist, who went by Dirt Beard. He wasn't even a Player, it was just his nickname.

Tae watched as Kook flipped through different books of designs. "Okay, no fire breathing dragons, no knives, no clowns..."

"Okay," Kook nodded in understanding. Most of the designs looked like a children's temporary tattoo, so it took a bit for them to even come close to deciding on something.

"No snakes or skeletons," she added more as she thought of them.

"What about panthers in tornadoes?" Kook asked, pointing to a design at the top of the page.

"No," Tae laughed, making him laugh as well.

"No?"

"Definitely not."

"Okay."

"What about this?" Dirt Beard chimed in from the side. "Just a tattoo of my dad. Right here," he gestured to his bicep, jokingly. "He's gorgeous, honestly. He's a nice looking guy," he chuckled because he got Tae to laugh as well.

Maybe it wasn't very hard to do so, but Kook took it as a personal victory every time he made Tae flash a smile.

"Okay, I got this," Kook said, grabbing a pencil from the table and a scrap of paper. "Here we go," he said, putting pencil to paper and beginning to sketch.

"You're gonna draw it?" Tae asked incredulously. 

"Yes."

"What? No," she whined quite endearingly.

"Yes, be quiet. I gotta concentrate," he teased, finishing up the sketch despite the unsure look on Tae's face. "Okay, done," he walked the paper over to Dirt Beard, "something like this, only... less shitty?"

"Yes!" Dirt Beard chuckled excitedly.

Tae didn't know how to feel about their little celebration in the corner so she crossed her arms and stared at them, waiting for an explanation.

They both caught the look she was giving them, so Dirt Beard reassured her, "oh, I'm laughing 'cause it's good."

"Oh, come on," Tae sighed, thinking they were hiding away a horrible design that would have to grace her skin forever.

"You have to trust me. That's the whole thing," Kook told her.

"Gotta trust me," Dirt Beard added.

"And Dirt Beard."

-

"Okay, the dare said it just has to be bigger than a quarter and this feels a lot bigger than a qua--ow!" Tae whimpered against the seat she was sitting backwards in. She held onto the back of it while the needle repeatedly drove into her shoulder.

"Hold on, I'm just doing the Y in DADDY," Dirt Beard joked, making Tae whip her head around to stare up at Kook.

"What?!" she asked him.

"He's kidding, you're doing great," he assured her, but he was looking at her phone that had just chirped in his hand. "Don't listen to him."

**[RAP WHILE YOU GET TATTED]**

"If it wasn't for the pain, that buzzing noise would be the worst of it--OW!" Tae hissed, letting her head rest on her arms on the back of the chair. She didn't get to see Kook walking over to Dirt Beard's laptop to play a song over the speakers in the shop.

Tae looked back at Kook when she realized what song it was and when she saw that he was recording her with her own cellphone, she took the hint that she'd been dared.

 _"Dolla dolla bill, y'all,"_ Tae mumbled along with the song, her brows pinched together in pain, but she rapped along, _"I grew up on the crime side, the New York Times side. Staying alive was no jive. Had second hands. Moms bounced on old man--_ ow-- _so then we moved to Shaolin land. A young youth, yo, rockin the gold tooth,"_ she pointed to her teeth when Kook had moved to filming her face instead of her shoulder.

**[DARE COMPLETE]**

"Yeah, rockin' that gold tooth," he winked, as he ended the video and set her phone down.

Tae felt a little silly, but she could admit that she was having fun. Despite the needles in her skin. In fact that didn't even matter once Kook was sitting down in front of her.

"Big Wu-Tang fan, huh?"

"My brother used to listen to them all the time," she answered.

"Yeah? You have a brother?" he asked curiously.

" _Had_ a brother," Tae replied hesitantly, not wanting to bring the mood down, but she figured it would come up at some point so she explained so she didn't have to again, "he died right before starting college."

"I'm sorry," Kook replied sincerely, hoping she wasn't upset with him asking, "how long ago was that?"

"Two years ago," she answered. "He was eighteen. This December, I'll be older than him. Older than my older brother," she smiled sadly before a cry of pain left her lips because of her shoulder.

"Hey, hey, you're good," Kook had his hand on top of hers. 

"He was just one of those people who wasn't afraid of anything," she smiled up at the Player who was smiling back then. "He always said yes. He would laugh so hard if he saw me getting a tattoo right now."

"Boom. I am done," Dirt Beard announced. "Go over to that mirror and celebrate my work."

-

"Sup, young Jedi?" 

"Hey, um--" Jin greeted his fellow hacker friend Kim Namjoon over the phone.

"You know we miss you over here at _The Cloud_."

"Yeah, you all playing _Nerve_?" Jin asked.

"And Watching, of course," Namjoon replied.

"I'm trying to find out more about this _K00K1E_ guy."

"Oh! My boy Kook!" Namjoon said excitedly. "He's Playing with your little girl friend, Tae, right? Could be you, but you're playin'."

"Alright, yes. That's uh, the problem though. I'm looking at his profile and there's just _nothing_ on the guy," Jin told him, staring down at his iPad where he had Tae, Jimin, and Kook's profiles open.

"Did you try _Google_?"

Jin rolled his eyes, "yeah, yeah, I tried _Google_ ," he mocked him.

"Guess he's a ghost, then."

"Look... I need a ticket to _Aruba_ ," Jin told him.

"Uh, what? No."

"Yes, come on."

"It's not ready for that kind of shit, you're gonna mess up my ratings."

"I'm not gonna mess up your rating, okay? I'm not gonna buy guns or something," Jin shook his head incredulously.

"Jin, no. Not happening."

"I'm just worried about my friend. _Please_."

Namjoon sighed and reluctantly answered, "alright, I'll send you a pass key."

"Awesome, thank you."

-

"A lighthouse?" Tae smiled when she saw the reflection of her tattoo in the mirror. Kook filmed on her phone in order to make the original dare count.

**[DARE COMPLETE]**

"Thank you," Tae told him when she turned to face him and he stopped recording her.

"Well, a very wise person once said," Kook began, "...and this was earlier today..."

Tae rolled her eyes, already knowing what he was going to say.

"...that the lighthouse represents what we want most in life," he quoted her. "So, whatever that is, I hope you get it."

-

"What? How many followers does she have _now_?" Jimin asked, staring down at Hoseok's phone. 

Tae was still in the top 10 and her number of Watchers was only increasing.

"To be fair, you _did_ tell her to take a risk," Hobi shrugged.

"This isn't what I meant, H. This is ridiculous," Jimin shook her head and walked away, deeper into the party. 

-

"Okay, now they're asking if I can trust you," Kook showed her his phone.

**[CAN YOU TRUST TAE?]**

Tae smirked, thinking it was another tattoo dare. "I have the perfect idea for a tattoo for you," she told him, taking his arm.

They were just about to walk back into the parlor when his phone beeped again.

"Wait.. No, okay, it's not a tattoo dare," he said.

"What is it?"

"It just says **[GO TO PARK AND 25TH]**."

-

 **NJK:** _here you go._

 **NJK:** _don't do anything i wouldn't do, dummy._

 **NJK:** _> 1c 46 32 3f e5 f6 ca e7 a1 2d f2 c8 f6 38_

 **SJK:** _thanks. i owe you one._

Jin searched for _Aruba_ , one of The Cloud's biggest projects. It was basically a massive search engine that reached even deeper than the dark web itself to give results.

Nothing could hide from _Aruba_. Not even a _Nerve_ profile.

He copy pasted the referral key Namjoon sent him, which granted him access to the entire site.

"Oh, God, I love the internet," Jin thought aloud when he was met with a search bar. 

There were two boxes, **[marketplace]** and **[forum]**.

He switched to the forum and typed in key words he thought would help him gather more info about this mysterious Player his friend was running around with.

 **Search:** _kook nerve dare motorcycle_

A variety of different posts filled the screen, most of which were about _Nerve_ in general.

But there were a few about Kook, which was exactly what Jin was looking for.

A gif popped up of the Player approaching a motorcycle, hot wiring it, and then driving away. The post was captioned, _this guy could win!_ 🔥

The next post was a simple text post: _can't believe K00K1E's Playing again after Seattle!_ 😱

"What? He's Played before?" Jin's brows pinched in confusion.

Another gif came after that; the background was a foggy grey cityscape, but the main focus was a person who was dangling from a crane at the top of a skyscraper.

This must've been the Seattle incident everyone was talking about.

The gif cut from the dangling Player to a Player who was sitting at the top of said crane. It was Kook. He stared back behind the camera with furrowed brows, signifying that there were at least three different people involved.

 _last year was HECTIC_ 💀🏢, was the caption of this gif.

Jin wasted no time in grabbing his phone and clicking Tae's name which was in his emergency contact list.

 _"Hey, it's Tae. Can't make it to the phone right now. Leave a message!"_

Her voicemail was the only answer.


	7. six

"Alright, **[MAKE IT TO 60MPH]** ," Kook read his next dare aloud to Tae.

"Okay," she nodded with a simple shrug.

"Pretty easy one. Let's do this," he smiled and moved to grab their helmets, when his phone beeped again.

" _What_ did that just say?" Tae asked as she caught a glimpse of the updated dare.

Apparently the Watchers weren't too fond of them calling their original dare _easy_.

Kook sighed and brought his phone up to show her.

**[GET TO 60MPH BLINDFOLDED]**

**[ACCEPT]** OR **[REJECT]**

" _Blindfolded_?!" Tae read aloud, staring up at Kook incredulously. "On the motorcycle?" she asked, making sure she was getting it right.

"Yeah."

"You're on your own with that one," Tae laughed and turned as if she was about to walk away, but Kook reached for her arm, gently pulling her back.

"Wait. I can't do this alone," he said. "I need you to help me navigate."

"There is no way in hell that I'm doing that," Tae shook her head with a sigh, "I'm sorry, but I'm out... but also, thank you, for everything from tonight. I had a lot of fun; I got a new dress, got a tattoo," she listed off but the frown on Kook's face made her want to stay. "But I... I'm good," she raised her hand to shake with his.

" _Stay_ ," Kook held onto her hand instead of shaking it, smiling down at her with a hopeful glint in his starry brown eyes, "let's see what else happens."

Then, before Tae could answer, a massive black pickup truck whipped around the corner, speeding up before slowing to a stop right beside them. Skid marks were left on the asphalt behind it.

A minty-haired guy stepped down from the driver's side, heavy rap music booming through the speakers.

"Sup, guys," he greeted both Players before turning to Tae directly. " _TAETAE._ Big fan of your work," he smirked, as he handed her what looked like a long strip of paper. "Can you hold this up for me, please?"

Tae unfolded the paper, finding that it was actually a window sticker. It was all black with bold white letters that read, **NEW YORK F***ING CITY.**

The guy took a short video on his phone so he could prove that he got her to hold it like his Watchers wanted.

**[DARE COMPLETE]**

"Great. Thanks!" he told her before turning to get back into his truck. He didn't even take the sticker back. "Hey, Kook. See you in the finals," he winked, before he was speeding off without another word.

"Who was that guy?" Tae asked, setting the sticker on the seat of the bike.

"I dunno, just... another Player," Kook replied simply, which made Tae a little nervous because he didn't seem all that thrilled to see the guy.

Then, he was changing the subject.

"Tae, please do this with me. _Please_? I need you," he begged, but she didn't reply. "You'd be in complete control. Just... say yes..."

-

"What?" Hoseok gaped as he stared at Tae's livestream. "Oh, no. Jimin," he called out, then realized she was no longer in the room with him. "Jimin!" he called out louder as he walked through and around people to get to her.

"What?" she asked around a sip of alcohol in the living room.

"You're not gonna believe this," he told her, dragging his fingers upwards on his cellphone to send the livestream to the flat screen on the wall. Everyone's attention turned to Kook's dare that popped up.

"What?" Jimin asked rhetorically as she stepped closer. "Are you kidding me?" she gaped, the people around them murmuring their thoughts.

"You ready?" Kook turned his head to look back at Tae. Both had their helmets on, but their glass face shields were flipped up.

"No," Tae shook her head, but she knew that wouldn't change anything.

"Let's do this," he sighed, pushing his face shield down, revealing the massive black sticker that covered it and Jimin's heart was in her throat. "Alright, remember, you're my eyes," Kook told Tae.

Hoseok swiped Tae's livestream onto the screen as well so the party-goers could Watch both at once.

Kook's phone was attached to the bike, filming from between the handlebars. But through his stream, all you could see was his chest, his helmet, and the tan arms that wrapped around him.

They sat at a stoplight for another few seconds until it changed and Tae whispered, "green.."

"Hold on," he said, his fist twisting slightly around the throttle. They slowly began to move, but the balance was completely off because, well, _he couldn't see a damn thing in front of him_.

Tae squeaked when the bike wobbled and Kook was trying to gain some sort of stability. "You okay?" he checked, his heart pounding in his chest. Though with the way she was holding onto him, he could tell she was a lot more terrified than he was.

"Yeah," she lied, not wanting to worry him, even if he was going to worry anyways.

"Just keep your eyes open," he said, the clock on his phone beginning to tick down from two minutes.

"Okay, okay," she rushed out, breathing shallowly.

"Hey, I know you're scared, but you gotta talk to me, Tae," Kook said as calmly as possible and they sped up slightly which made Tae want to scream. But not in a good way.

"Okay, taxi to the right," she told him, but the bike still veered towards the other vehicle. "On the right! _Right_!"

"You have a sticker on your head!" the taxi driver honked, pointing to his own head as if that would help.

"No! Go left! Left!" Tae cried out as they swerved towards the taxi again, the driver shouting at them.

They bumped the side, so Tae instinctively put her hand against the taxi to push the bike towards the left. "Sorry! Sorry!" Tae shouted to the driver, meanwhile the bike was now veering to the left, towards the cement barriers that split the lanes down the center.

"Too far left! Go right! Right!" Tae shrieked, subconsciously leaning herself and Kook away from the barriers. As soon as they leaned, the bike veered back to the center of the lane.

"Alright! Okay! I think that worked, right?!" Kook shouted hopefully over the sound of the commotion. "Are we good?!"

"Actually, yes!" Tae laughed nervously, breathing quickly from the adrenaline rush.

"Alright, just keep doing that!"

"Just _lean_?!" Tae asked.

"Yes, lean!" he confirmed, "left or right! _You_ are in control!"

She held onto him tightly, weaving around cars just by leaning their weight from side to side.

"We good?!"

"Yes! Okay, speed up!" she told him once there weren't any cars in front of them.

"Yes, ma'am!" Kook smirked, twisting the throttle and zooming forward.

"There is no way that she's doing this," Jimin shook her head, her heart also pounding in her chest but not nearly as hard as the Players on the screen.

There was a minute left and they were still only going a steady 30MPH.

"We're halfway there!" she informed him, her brown eyes flicking to the streetlights ahead. "Alright, the next light is... green!"

Kook kept his hand steady on the throttle, feeling the wind zipping past them as they drove.

"Next light's green!"

Another intersection passed.

"You're doing good, we got this!" Kook encouraged her.

"Next light is..." Tae paused, as she glanced up and gaped, when she saw green switch to yellow.

"C'mon, stay with me! What's going on?!" Kook asked worriedly.

"Next light's green! Faster!" Tae rushed out, reaching for Kook's fist and twisting it back as yellow became red.

Tae screamed as a massive van came at them from the side. Had it not stopped in time, Tae & Kook would be roadkill. They were honked at of course, but there was nothing they could do about it then.

"Oh, my God," Jimin teared up, the rest of the room was either covering their mouths in shock or Watching on in interest.

"Green!" Tae called out at the next intersection. "Green!" she repeated at the next.

The clock was down to thirty seconds but they were only going 34MPH at this point. It wasn't fast enough.

"Taxi!" a woman called from the sidewalk up ahead and one of the numerous yellow cars in front of them rushed across all three lanes of traffic just to get to her first.

They didn't even bother parking properly! The ass end of the car was right in the way of the bike!

"Shit!" Tae cried out, leaning as far left as she possibly could, bringing them down an exit ramp and into a tunnel.

Three lanes merged into two and now the clock was at fifteen seconds.

"15 seconds! We're at 46! 47!" Tae counted their speed aloud as it climbed higher and higher.

As they passed another van, the door slid open to reveal a few Watchers who were filming them. " _K00K1E_ , we love you!" they shouted.

"Love you, too!" Kook yelled back to them, but kept his head forward.

"Let's go!" Tae gripped Kook's hand properly in order to speed up. "57! 58! 59! 60!" she screamed out excitedly as they exited the tunnel.

**[DARE COMPLETE]**

Kook flipped his face shield back up so he could see again, the two of them shouting and cheering about their success as they kept speeding on down the street.

"Oh, shit!" Kook screamed as he looked up ahead to find that the road no longer continued. It split off into a 'T' shape and right at the end of it, was a massive building that was protected by even more of those lovely cement barriers.

"Oh, my God!" Tae cried out, squeezing her eyes closed and tightening her grip around Kook's body. He quickly grabbed at the brakes, causing the back tire to quit spinning and skid against the pavement.

There was a split second where Tae thought that they were for sure going to be thrown from the bike, but now that Kook could see, he was able to keep it fairly steady and balanced.

They were still going a little too fast to avoid hitting the barrier, so Kook quickly leaned their bodies back and to the side, planting his Timberland boot against the asphalt which allowed their weight to spin the bike left and to a halt.

The Watchers at the party cheered for them, their views skyrocketing along with their follower count as the Players stepped off of the bike and laughed together.

"That was the craziest thing I've ever done!" Kook said, eyes and smile wide with exhilaration. "You were _incredible_!"

"What?! That's _you_!" Tae replied, bouncing on her heels.

"Ugh! I just wanna..." Kook left the end of that statement open, gesturing with his hands instead, as if to show that he couldn't properly explain how excited he was.

Either way, he wouldn't have been able to finish his sentence, considering Tae's lips were crashing into his own. Kook's eyes widened, but he quickly closed them, choosing to hold onto her waist and kiss her back properly instead.

Tae giggled against his lips, when a few Watchers drove by, cheering them on. Then, when they finally broke away from their searing kiss, still embracing each other, Kook asked, "you hungry at all?"

"Pizza?" she asked with her boxy smile.

"I was just about to say that," he said, before both of them were laughing into another soft kiss.


	8. seven

"Hey, Watchers," Jimin greeted her followers through her livestream. "Okay, listen. You and I both know that I should be in that top 10 box. So please, stop holding back. Okay? You guys don't need to be afraid because I'm not afraid! So just give me a _real_ dare!"

The door closed behind her in the empty bedroom, so she stopped her stream to see who it was. 

"Sup, Jiminie baby," a Player greeted her.

It was the same guy who had given Tae the sticker they had used as Kook's blindfold.

 _AGUSTD_.

His hair was minty green, his face and ears were pierced, and his skin was heavily tatted. His overall appearance was quite intimidating, if Jimin was being honest.

"What are you doing here?" Jimin asked, remaining confident.

"You're a good Player," he said as if it were obvious, stepping closer to her. " _You've_ got a lot of Watchers... _I've_ got a lot of Watchers. Maybe you and I could... team up?"

"I don't need a partner," Jimin declined with a quiet laugh.

"Seems to work for your friend Tae," he replied with a shrug, just as the door opened again, and in walked the quarterback.

"Oh..." Ryan said, when he realized the room was occupied. "What up, Jimin? You alright?" he glanced between her and Agust.

"Yeah, we're just talking," she replied.

"Yo, Mad Max," Ryan said to the male Player. "Why don't you show yourself out?"

Agust didn't say anything to him, but he reached for Jimin's hand that was clutching her phone, to which he brought his own phone up and lightly tapped her screen with it, causing his contact information to automatically sync to it.

"Call me," he looked her in the eye, but they weren't nearly as menacing as she was expecting them to be. Jimin didn't reply, but she watched him leave the room, not before he grabbed Ryan's cheeks and pinched at them.

"Captain," Agust mockingly saluted the guy. "Party on," he sent a wink towards Jimin, who smiled bashfully in return, before he was gone.

-

"Hey! Ms. Kim!" Jin greeted Tae's mother over the phone awkwardly. He was on the road again, making his way to the party downtown when she had called.

"Jin, I have a question. How would I know if I'm being hacked?" her voice came through the speakers in his car.

"W-What d'you mean?"

"Hacked," she repeated, "someone keeps depositing money into my bank account under Tae's name."

"Uh, that doesn't really sound like a hack," he explained politely. "Normally, if someone was hacking you, they'd take money _out_."

"Jin," she said in that motherly tone, "is there something you're not telling me?"

"Oh!" Jin replied as if he had just remembered something, "I just remembered, Tae got a job," he covered for her.

"What? A job?"

"Yeah, that's probably it," he lied fairly decently, "she's doing this online poker thing and I guess she's really good at it."

"Poker? Is it legal?"

"Yes, it's legal and she's doing very well," Jin told her, "as you can probably tell with the deposits. Anyway, I gotta go! I'm writing a paper right now on uh.. motorcycle safety. I'm gonna get going."

"Well tell her to call me."

"Sure thing. Bye!"

"Bye."

-

"Wanna take a ride?" Kook asked around a bite of his pizza slice as he and Tae walked the sidewalks of New York City.

"Is this a dare?" Tae asked from his side as they approached a carousel by the waterfront.

"No, it's a carousel," he replied jokingly, making her swat at his arm playfully.

"So... why are you playing _Nerve_?" Tae asked curiously once they were walking between the poles with fake horses on them.

"To help out my family," Kook replied with a modest little grin. "Some things happened that... I wished turned out differently."

"Like what?" she asked hesitantly.

Kook sighed aloud, pursing his lips before saying, "it's just... something I need to do," he shrugged as a few Watchers walked by, filming them on the kiddy ride. "Looks like we've got a few paparazzi. Hide," he smiled again, making Tae laugh as he ran back between a few horses, leaving her to catch up.

She chased him off the ride and back to the sidewalk, laughing happily until her phone began to vibrate in her hand.

"What is it?" Kook asked, thinking she had received a dare, when it was actually just a phone call.

"Jimin's calling," Tae turned the phone. With their livestreams still recording, the Watchers at the party were able to see Kook's reaction to Jimin's contact photo.

"So _that's_ Jimin," he said, recognizing the name from when he had first met Tae and she told him to Play with Jimin instead. "You gonna get it?" he asked.

But Tae shook her head, declining the call, "I don't want to deal with her right now," she admitted.

The room at the party filled with _ouch_ 's and _ooh_ 's, making Jimin's jaw set firmly as she took her phone from her ear and locked it.

"What's going on?" Kook asked curiously.

"She's just been a lot recently," Tae shook her head. "But--whatever. You don't wanna talk about that," she waved her hand, as if to dismiss the topic.

"I mean, if you want to talk about it, I'm here. Happy to listen."

Tae sighed as she seemed to do a lot recently, "I'm just... I guess I'm just tired of being her sidekick all the time..." she confessed quietly, feeling guilty for saying it even if she had no idea that her phone was still streaming.

Kook raised a brow at that, "that's funny 'cause... you don't seem like anyone's sidekick."

Tae blushed and avoided eye contact, not used to the compliments and the flattery. Those usually only came Jimin's way.

"Let me see that picture again?" Kook asked.

"Oh, uh... sure," she shrugged, handing her phone over.

His eyes scanned the full picture of Jimin, his face being the only thing on Tae's livestream in that moment.

"Wow," he said.

"Yeah," Tae nodded in agreement. "Guys go crazy for her. Girls, too."

"No, I mean, the picture itself is really good."

She accepted the compliment with another flush to her cheeks, "thanks... I-I took it," she informed him.

"Yeah? You have a good eye," he replied, glancing over the picture again. "I just--I can't really picture you hanging out with someone... like this," he said.

"What d'you mean?"

"I dunno, I--she just looks kind of... insecure...? I guess...?" Kook said slowly, the look on his face showing that he knew how bad that sounded. "Is that mean? If it is, I'm really sorry."

"She _is_ insecure," Tae replied. "I mean, she makes it seem like I'm the one that's insecure, but it's her. It's exhausting."

"I'm sure."

"She's at this party, most likely drunk, and needs me to hold her hair back. I'm just over it," she thought aloud, though she still wasn't really expecting anybody she knew to be Watching her. 

She wasn't even aware that any of her friends but Jin knew about her account in the first place. She figured Jimin was busy and Jin was still upset with her for ditching him. So she didn't think much of it when she unloaded to Kook.

"So are her parents. They're constantly out of town so she's always got this revolving door of guys over and.. sometimes it's kind of tough to watch."

She was just tired of Jimin treating her like she was some helpless little puppy. She didn't need a babysitter or a second mother.

"About that party..." Kook said as he glanced at his phone then slid it back into his pocket. "Should we maybe go check it out?"

"What?" Tae raised a brow. "Why would I wanna go to that party?" she laughed.

Kook shrugged, "maybe show off your new tattoo? Show Jimin that you're not the person she thinks you are?"

-

 _JIMINIE_ _wants a good dare... let's give her one!_

Jimin'sWatchers conversed in their private chat.

_srsly what should her dare be??_

_something scary!_

_yeah freak her out_ 😱

 _Let's get her really high up_ 🏢

_-_

Jimin was properly drunk, nursing a golden solo cup from her spot in the living room.

The guests weren't Watching any livestreams anymore, just dancing and trying to have a good time after the drama that had just unfolded.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, so she stopped swaying to the music to read her incoming dare.

**[WALK THE LADDER TEN STORIES UP]**

Jimin was a bit confused about her task until the main door of the apartment opened up and in walked two Watchers with a metal fireman ladder balanced on their shoulders.

"Coming through, watch out," one of them announced as they made their way through the hallway to the window in the back room. 

Jimin's lips parted in order to swallow the last bit of her drink and then she was being followed over to the window. All of them waiting patiently for them to get it properly set up.

Ryan watched from the sidelines and he nervous about this, no doubt, but Jimin was determined and who was he to stop her from doing what she wanted?

In fact he helped her up onto the windowsill and held her hand as she ducked through the small window and stood up straight on the other side.

She leaned against the window for support and tried to prepare herself for what was about to happen. It was about a fifteen foot stretch between the party and the apartment across from it. 

Watchers held the ladder firmly at both sides so it wouldn't fall and all eyes were on Jimin. Only this time around, she wasn't enjoying it.

"Deep breath, _JIMINIE_ ," a Watcher told her from the opposite side of the ladder.

"Go girl!" someone shouted from the party.

"I got this," Jimin replied quietly, but it was more to herself than anyone else. She planted her boot against the first bar and tried to balance herself, attempting to walk across slowly but surely.

"There you go!" another Watcher cheered when she took another shaky step.

"Come on, Chim!" someone shouted from the alleyway below where a group of Watchers were filming her.

Ryan left the window, bumping into Hoseok who suddenly appeared in the hallway. He tapped his arm quickly, "dude, you gotta see this."

Hobi raised a brow, but followed him into the room. "Jimin?!" he asked when he recognized the butt of her shorts right outside the window. 

He wasn't even aware that she had received a dare. She usually came and asked him to film, if she got one, but she must've forgotten about that a few mixed drinks ago.

"Jimin, what are you doing?!" Hobi called to her, making his way up to the window so he could be the one holding that end of the ladder for her. "Jimin, you can turn around and come back, you don't have to do this!"

"Shut up!" Jimin said to the room full of chatter behind her. Hoseok's voice was barely detectable over all the noise and Jimin was getting pretty annoyed by all of the different voices distracting her.

She lowered to her hands and knees instead, opting for crawling across. 

"Take your time, Jimin," someone said.

"Chim, it's just a stupid game," Hoseok tried again, his heart beating out of his chest. The last thing he wanted was for someone to make one wrong move and send Jimin falling to the pavement below.

"You can always turn around, Chim," said another unrecognizable voice.

"You're doing great," someone from the opposite window told her, "but it's not gonna count unless you film it."

Jimin looked up when she heard that, shaking her head as she remembered the rules. She had to film it on her own phone. It didn't matter if everyone and their grandma had their phones out recording her. _She_ had to do it.

"Don't worry about that! She can't film it!" Hoseok said exasperatedly. "Jimin, you can't film and crawl at the same time."

"It doesn't count unless she films it! _She_ has to film it!" the Watchers from the other side argued as Jimin reached into her back pocket and pulled her phone out.

She held it out in front of her, then attempted to stand up again, but began to cry when the ladder shook. Jimin was terrified out of her mind and it was only amplified by the amount of alcohol that was coursing through her veins.

"I can't! I can't!" Jimin shook her head, lowering back into a crawl and attempting to move forward.

"Jimin, you have to stand up, you're gonna run out of time!" a Watcher called to her.

"Stop yelling at me!" she sniffled, trying to crawl with one hand gripping her phone tightly.

"She has to get it done!"

"Shut up!" someone else yelled in return.

"Jimin, it's gonna take too long. You gotta stand."

Jimin looked up at the Watcher in front of her, at least he was trying to help some by being calm, unlike the party of people behind her who just kept shouting things at her.

"Shut up!" Jimin shouted out. "Shut up! Shut up!"

"She's running out of time, she has to stand or she's gonna fail."

" _Shut up all of you_!!!" Jimin shrieked, as she tried to ignore everything and focus on completing the task, slowly standing again. She took one shaky step forward, then another, but on the third, her boot slipped and her leg fell through the space between steps.

"Oh, God-- _Jimin_!!!" Hobi shouted, making sure to hold his end of the ladder down as she slipped.

Her hands instinctively grabbed at the sides of the ladder and her pelvis painfully landed on one of the bars in the center, causing her to cry out and drop her phone.

It fell ten stories down to the alleyway and shattered to pieces.

"I can't!!" Jimin sobbed. "I bail, I bail, I bail!!" she rushed out, her voice breaking as she cried, and Hoseok never thought he'd be so relieved to see Jimin quit.

In fact he made _Ryan_ hold the ladder while _he_ climbed out, holding onto the upper half of the window and holding his hand out towards Jimin.

Without her phone, she was able to crawl a little easier and when her hand finally graced his, Hoseok held onto it, helping her get close enough so he could pull her back into the apartment with him.

As soon as their feet were on the carpet again, Hoseok was pulling her to his chest, holding her tightly. "You scared the shit out of me," he breathed, a hand coming up to stroke the back of her head, as she sobbed against his chest.

Jimin held onto him just as tightly, not even caring if the entire city watched her give up. She almost fell to her death. It was understandable that all she could do was cry.

Plenty of people have either failed or bailed, but some end up better off than others, and Jimin was _extremely_ lucky to be able to walk away from that dare.


	9. eight

__

_wtf no way_ 😱😱😱

_which one of you came up with this one??_

_don't try this at home kids!_ 😵

**\---**

_AGUSTD_ 's chatroom was full of these kinds of comments.

He had watched Jimin bail from the driver's seat of his truck, and it was pretty hard to watch, if he was being honest; And this was coming from someone who had done _way_ worse to get _way_ further in the game.

Agust asked his Watchers to give him _the mother of all dares_ and dedicated it to _JIMINIE_ and her Watchers.

"This one's for Jimin. Sorry about your bail, babe," he gave a sympathetic half smile into his phone's camera, as he walked along the metal rail of a train track. "On a brighter note, now that you've got more free time, maybe we can chill sometime," he shrugged hopefully at the idea, as he knelt down to rest his phone against a wooden strip in the track.

The loud, bellowing horn of the train could be heard from a short distance away, making Agust whip his head back to gage how far away it was.

"Alright. Showtime," he breathed, rubbing his hands together, before lowering into a push-up position and laying completely flat against the track.

He outstretched his arms, one of his hands gripping the wooden strip right in front of his phone.

The same horn sounded and the lights from the front of the train seemed to outline Agust's body in off-white.

As the train zipped over him from behind, he couldn't help but smile, purposely shouting at the top of his lungs just because he felt like it.

It was a fairly short train compared to most so he was only under for about fifteen seconds, surprising him when it passed.

"That was it?" he mumbled, watching the train disappear before his eyes. He got to his feet then, staying crouched down so he could read his phone that beeped, clapping his hands together as he did so.

**[DARE COMPLETE]**

**[YOU ARE NOW IN FIRST PLACE]**

As more and more Players either failed or bailed, eventually there were only three left in the city.

Tae, Kook, and Agust.

So it wasn't too surprising when Tae and Kook arrived at the party downtown and everybody flocked to film them, praising the Players for making it to the top three.

Hoseok greeted Tae with a quick hug, his mood had improved greatly since the drama of Jimin's bail from earlier that night. The alcohol probably helped, too.

"You guys are so famous right now," he chuckled, then remembered what happened on Tae's livestream a little bit ago.

"Just wait 'til Jimin sees you," Jin commented when he joined them. He had arrived a short while before Tae & Kook. Hoseok had filled him in on the situation as soon as he arrived.

"Where is she?" Tae asked curiously, still unaware of the fact that the entire party (and quite possibly the entire city of New York) heard what she said about Jimin.

"Oh, you guys don't know?" Hobi asked, causing Tae to raise a confused brow.

"Know what?"

Jin pointed to the window where the ladder from Jimin's dare was still connecting the two buildings.

"She tried to cross the ladder and bailed," Hobi explained.

"Jimin's out of the game?" Tae's eyes went wide with surprise.

"It wasn't pretty," Jin told her, so she immediately searched the apartment for her friend.

"Chim?" she called out, "Jimin."

"She's in the bedroom," a Watcher bounced their brows, gesturing to said room and Tae took no time in opening the door and looking in.

"Oh..." Tae's lips parted in slight disappointment when she caught sight of Jimin and Ryan on the bed, partially clothed and sucking on each other's faces.

Ryan pulled away first, standing up and awkwardly meeting Tae's eyes. Jimin sat up then, her face remaining emotionless, as if she was unimpressed by her friend's sudden presence.

"Oh, come on, Tae," Jimin said monotonously, "you never even spoke to him."

"It's fine," Tae pursed her lips. "Certainly no surprise," she muttered as she left the doorway and began to walk away.

Jimin fixed the strap of her tank top and walked after her, meeting her in the hall. "Yeah, I guess it is fine. You know what's _not_ fine, though?"

Tae turned to look at Jimin with a blank face.

"I almost _died_ tonight, Tae... and you were _nowhere_ to be found."

"I'm sorry," Tae scoffed quietly. "When you said to live my life, did you mean I should live my life in your shadow?"

"I was just trying to help you, Tae, because you're the most repressed person I know," Jimin nodded, feigning sympathy.

"Isn't that why you keep me around? Because I _never_ tell you the truth?" Tae asked sarcastically before walking into the main room. She quickly spotted Kook who was conversing with Hoseok by the unlit fireplace.

"Come on, let's go," Tae mumbled when she was at her partner's side, wanting to leave before it could get any worse.

"Yeah, Tae. I guess you _don't_ tell me the truth," Jimin said as she followed her into the room. "Because you never told me about how _insecure I am_ , or about how I have just a _revolving door of guys_ all the time."

Tae's stomach flipped once she realized Jimin was quoting her directly, but her phone chirped in her hand, distracting her for a split second.

**[FINISH JIMIN'S DARE]**

"'Cause you've told everyone that tonight," Jimin raised her voice, gesturing to the crowd of a party around them. "So, _please_ , Tae! Go _right_ ahead and show us all what a fiery little spark plug you've become since lunch!"

"Let's go," Tae tried again to pull Kook along towards the exit, but Jimin grabbed her shoulder, turning her back around.

"Don't walk away from me," she said when Tae was stopped and facing her again. "Tae! Wake up! This is a _game_! Do you really think that someone like him is actually gonna be with you when all of this is done?!" Jimin gestured to Kook.

"Hey, you don't know me," Kook replied, only doing so because she brought him into it.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You really like her now?" Jimin asked in disbelief.

"Yes, I do," Kook answered as-a-matter-of-factly, and now that Jimin was getting into it with _him_ , Tae just wanted to implode.

"Alright, come on, Jimin, that's enough," Jin said as he finally intervened. "You're drunk."

"Oh, my God, Jin! Will you please just _get over her_?! Clearly she has traded up!" Jimin shouted at him and phones were out recording by then. Not that anyone was surprised.

"Why are you being such a bitch?!" Tae asked then, brows furrowed sadly. She could say what she wanted about her, but there was absolutely no need to attack Jin or Kook.

"Oh, look at that," Jimin fakely praised, "look at little Tae, finally speaking her mind! Come on! _Unburden_ yourself," she gestured for Tae to say whatever else she had to say.

"You know why we're best friends?" Tae crossed her arms.

"Why?"

"I do whatever you want all the time!" Tae answered her own question, her voice cracking slightly.

"No, Tae," Jimin laughed at that. "We're friends, because I'm _fun_ and you're _boring_!" she said exasperatedly. "The only fun thing about you was your _brother_."

Tae's eyes were wet, but she didn't make a sound.

"What is it that you think?!" Jimin kept at it, "that playing _Nerve_ is just _magically_ gonna make you a different person?! That's not how life works! You will _never_ be a Player."

"Right," Tae snapped back, "I know how much you love _living in the moment_ , Chim!" she mocked her. "Well, remember _this_ moment, okay? Because you're one of those girls who peaks in high school, and you'll wake up one day, _still_ living in Staten Island, _still_ screwing the same guys, wondering what the _hell_ happened to your life!"

Jimin was silenced, the crowd murmuring between Tae's petty jabs.

"If you _really_ wanna know where I am that badly, then sign up and watch me," Tae muttered, pushing past Jimin and pressing **_[ACCEPT]_** , before moving to complete her unfinished dare.

Jimin stood in the hallway, not sure of what to do next. But the second she heard the metal clattering of the ladder, she was pushing through people to get to the window.

"Tae, you don't have to do this," Kook was trying to convince her as she climbed out onto the windowsill. He glanced back at Jimin whose face was no longer contorted in anger, but she seemed almost as scared as she was earlier that night.

Tae's hurt-filled eyes locked onto Jimin's as she ducked through the window and stood up straight just outside of it.

"Let's go, just _bail_. What are you trying to prove?" Kook kept at it, but Tae wouldn't listen. Jimin felt a bit childish for bringing the guy into their argument when she saw how hard he was trying to get Tae back inside. He really must've cared about her.

In fact she was beginning to regret everything she had said.

Tae counted the steps from one end to the other, ignoring the different voices that chimed in. Even if most of them were encouraging her to finish the dare.

Being sober made things a lot easier for Tae, but a _lot_ scarier, too.

Her phone was clutched tightly in her fist, filming her feet as she took a shaky step forward, then another, and another until she started to lose her balance.

She was doing fairly well, though. If making it to the center of the ladder was considered _"doing well."_

"You got this, Tae!" a Watcher shouted from the other side, encouraging her to finish.

She took a deep breath, adjusting her footing to stabilize herself. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins at this point, urging her to keep walking.

So she did, passing two bars at a time instead of one and making it to the other side.

**[DARE COMPLETE]**

**[+$15,000]**

**[YOU ARE NOW IN FIRST PLACE]**

Once her feet were planted safely in the opposite apartment, Tae glanced back at the other window to find Jimin holding the other end of the ladder down, her eyes wide.

"Congrats on making it in first, Tae!" a Watcher congratulated her once she had turned to find her way out of the apartment. She shook her head, not wanting to talk as she rounded a corner into a hallway and ran into Jin's chest.

Tae looked up at him with a set jaw and a stern look in her eye.

Jin shrugged at her as if to show that he didn't know what to say.

"That was messed up," he told her quietly, seemingly disappointed in her but she knew he was disappointed in both her _and_ Jimin.

"I'm not gonna deal with this right now. I'm gonna go," she replied, trying to walk around him but he stepped in front of her.

"You know he's played _Nerve_ before?" Jin blurted out.

"What?" her brows furrowed incredulously.

"It was his dare to get you here and fight with Jimin. That's why he brought you here," he explained, pulling out his phone to show Kook's most recent dare. "Look."

**[GET TAE TO FIGHT WITH JIMIN]**

Tae read the dare, not wanting to believe it, but how could she _not_ believe her best friend since elementary school? Especially when he had brought solid evidence right to her face.

"Do you still trust him?" Jin asked, his eyes flicking to the doorway of the original apartment, so she turned to see what he was looking at.

Kook was standing among the threshold with a guilty look on his face. His lips were parted and eyes were wide as if he'd been caught because he had been.

Tae walked away from everything, marching down the hallway with her jaw set tightly in anger, but regardless of this, Kook followed her.

"Tae, wait," he said, jogging to catch up to her. "Wait."

"Is it true?" she immediately questioned, not even bothering to look at him. She kept her eyes forward and kept walking, not slowing down for anything or anyone.

"Is what true?"

Tae stopped in front of the elevator, slamming her fist against the down button and finally looking up at him. "Did you bring me here as part of a dare?" she confronted him, but he didn't reply. "Answer me! Is it true?"

Another apartment door opened, Watchers pouring out and filming them. Tae didn't care if they had an audience. She had nothing left to lose. However, when the elevator door slid open, Kook quickly pushed her inside, his fingers pressing repeatedly against the ground floor button.

He seemed to button mash often.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Tae asked from the corner of the elevator, demanding to know why she had been pushed into the wall like that.

"It's more complicated than that--" Kook rushed out when he faced her, the elevator moving prevented her from being able to walk away.

"I just lost my two best friends tonight because of you! How much did you get for that?!" she shouted at him.

"It's not about the money, alright?" he shook his head, stuttering to put an explanation together, "please, just let me explain, I can--"

"Oh, my God! Don't even bother! I mean, Jimin almost _died_ tonight! _I_ almost died tonight!"

"I know--"

"This game is sick! I'm going to the police!" she told him, trying to move around him to open the elevator, but he blocked the doors and pressed the pause button instead. The elevator immediately stopped in its place, the doors remaining closed as they were most likely halfway between two floors.

"What are you doing?!"

"I'm sorry, alright, but you can't do that. You _can't_ go to the police!"

"Why not?!" she replied, "because I'll _lose the game_?!"

She quickly slammed the emergency stop button which sent the elevator to the closest floor and immediately let them out. She slipped out of the elevator with ease, running off before he had a chance to even process what was happening.

"Tae!" he called after her, exiting the elevator and chasing after her. "Tae! You can't go to the police! That's the _last_ thing you wanna do!"

He chased her down two more flights of stairs to the lobby where she made a bee line for the revolving front doors.

"Please! Wait! I wasn't trying to hurt you, it just got out of control!" Kook chased her through a crowd of Watchers who had been waiting outside to film them. Tae and Kook's faces were lit up by flashes, be it from photographs being taken or live video.

Tae pushed on.

"Move! Move!" Kook said as he brushed past people to get to Tae who seemed to be better at maneuvering through tight spaces.

"Officer!" Tae called out when she spotted a cop car that was parked just down the street. Most likely keeping watch over the apartments due to the large amount of people there.

Kook stopped in his tracks and the Watchers who were just shouting praise towards the Players went dead silent as they filmed Tae approaching the police car.

"Officer, I need help," she panted from her running as she spoke to the man through his rolled down window. "I've been playing this game. I-It's called _Nerve_ and I'm worried that more people are going to be seriously hurt because of it."

"Uh oh," one Watcher laughed, aiming his camera lens directly at Kook.

"Snitch!" another one shouted towards her, making Kook glare back at him.

"A game? They all playing, too?" the officer asked, pointing towards the large group of filming Watchers that only seemed to multiply before their eyes. Kook standing front and center.

"Yes."

"Well, is a crime being committed?"

"N-No, but... but a kid could die tonight," she replied seriously. "I--Here. It's all on my phone. You can see," Tae rushed to pull her phone out, showing him the screen.

"Snitch!" the Watchers continued to shout at her.

The officer didn't seem to be taking any interest in her story and her phone began to ring, so Tae sighed and walked across the street to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Tae, thank God!" her mother's voice came through, sounding quite distressed.

"Mom!" she swallowed thickly, glancing back to watch Kook put on his helmet, hop onto his motorcycle, and ride away.

"Tae, all of the money from our bank account is missing! It's all gone!" she replied. "Tae, honey, are you in trouble?!" she asked, still sounding just as concerned. "Can you just please tell me what's going on?!"

"I'm gonna fix this, mom, I promise, I--" Tae stopped in her tracks when _AGUSTD_ hopped over a railing to stop her on the sidewalk.

"Fix what?!" her mother's voice could still be heard despite Tae having pulled her phone away from her ear. "Hello?! Tae!"

"I'm sorry..." Agust told her then, making Tae's brows furrow even further in confusion, "but I gotta win this game," he finished.

The last thing Tae saw, was the bright flash of his cellphone recording her, and his fist that he drew back.


	10. nine

Tae woke up later into the night, unaware of where she was, even when the lights flickered to life. Taking in her surroundings, she concluded that she was stuck in a freight container. Most likely near the harbor.

The walls of it were green, and illuminated by the neon lights all around her, was spray paint that read, **SNITCHES GET STITCHES.**

Tae's face scrunched up sadly, and she began to cry, as she pulled her knees to her chest. She moved to wipe the tears away, only to feel a stinging sensation when her fingertips swiped over her cheekbone.

"Ah!" she hissed painfully, pulling her fingers away and crying a little harder when she saw blood. Tae stood then, her movements triggering a motion sensor, which brought a small monitor at the other side of the container to life. The sound it made was that of an _Apple_ computer starting up.

She stared at it until a series of images, gifs, and videos infested the screen. All of which were of herself, her family, her friends, and/or all of their personal information; Bank account info, _Facebook_ , emails, private pictures, you name it.

 _"Hello, Tae,"_ the familiar robotic _Nerve_ voice filled the container. _"You broke the rules. You are our prisoner. We told you not to snitch. Now we control your life. We control your family. We control your future. The only way out is to win the final round. Go to the Staten Island ferry and the Watchers will find you. See you in the finals. See you in the finals. See you in the finals."_

As soon as Tae was given a location, she was kicking at the massive door behind the monitor. They had to have made it escapable. Otherwise, how would she have been able to get to said ferry?

One, two, three kicks was all it took for the door to swing open, making a loud clanging noise against the pavement outside. The ground was wet, but it hadn't rained and it smelled of fish, confirming that she was at the harbor and only a moderate walking distance away from the ferry.

She cried silently as she walked the shipyard, but her facial expression was relatively blank. That was until she heard someone shouting to someone else. "Let's check over here!"

She didn't understand what was happening, but she hid around the corner of a container, waiting for them to pass.

"I'm comin' for ya, Tae!" another Watcher called out as they ran the opposite direction and it made her shiver uncomfortably. She tried to take a moment to breathe and plan out her next move, when a person had suddenly rounded the corner.

"Tae! Thank God. Are you okay?"

Tae squeaked out of shock, her chest rising and falling with quick breaths. Once she realized it was just Kook however, she felt angry all over again.

"Am I okay?!" she shouted at him, at this point not even caring if the Watchers could hear her. "No, I am not okay! You need to tell me everything! What the hell is going on? Why is this happening to me?!"

Kook shushed her and took hold of her shoulders, walking her back into the corner she was hiding in. He trapped her there by placing his hand on the wall just beside her head. Tae's cheeks flushed red at their extremely close proximity.

"Okay, that guy _AGUSTD_? His real name is Yoongi," Kook began in a voice just above a whisper, "we both Played _Nerve_ together last year in Seattle. We got a dare to hang from a construction crane two hundred feet in the air. The two of us and this kid named Robbie."

Tae was quiet as she listened, wiping the tears from her cheeks and choosing to ignore the dull pain it caused.

"Robbie went first, while Yoongi filmed for him, and I thought I'd gotten close enough to Robbie that I could just grab him if something went wrong, but I wasn't. I tried to reach for him, as he reached for me, and our fingertips barely touched, before he slipped from the crane and--" Kook sighed in distress, "I'm pretty sure you know what happened next."

Tae swallowed thickly at that.

"So Yoongi and I went to the cops, tried to get the game shut down, but they didn't do anything," Kook shook his head, "they just called it an accident."

Watchers could be heard again, shouting for Tae in the distance so Kook glanced back for a split second in annoyance, but quickly continued to explain.

"The Watchers, they came after us for snitching. But they messed with my dad's job, they leaked photos of my sister online," he listed off a bunch of different things that happened since they snitched, "they stole our identities, Tae. Me & Yoongi, we... we became Prisoners of the game."

"Come on, what does that even mean?" Tae shook her head in disbelief.

"It's the third category," he answered. "Watcher, Player, Prisoner. I'm trapped... and the only way out is to win."

Tae was quiet for a second, before casually saying, "then you have to win."

"No," Kook shook his head at that. "No, _you_ do, Tae."

"What?"

"Tae," he sighed, "you're a Prisoner, now. Okay? So, you & I are gonna go into the final round together, and I'm gonna lose."

"No, you can't do that," Tae's voice broke and her eyes watered up again.

"It's already done," Kook nodded, "it's already done. I told my Watchers to give me a dare that will knock Yoongi out of second place. It's gonna be me & you," he looked into her eyes, his showing nothing but sincerity and a bit of worry.

Then, Kook's phone beeped from its spot on his motorcycle seat.

**[STAND BY FOR NEXT DARE]**

"I have to go," he said.

"Nonono," Tae tried grabbing onto his forearm, but he still moved away from her.

"I'm gonna take you somewhere that's safe."

"There's gotta be another way," she breathed, shaking her head. Her cheeks were wet with silent tears. Kook sighed, wanting nothing more than to wipe her tears, heal her wound, and protect her from any more harm. Which is why he had to do this.

"There isn't," he answered solemnly. "If it isn't me in the finals, it's Yoongi... and he'll do _anything_ to win. Just... _please_ , tell me we're gonna do this."

-

"Hey..." Jin spoke up from the driver's seat of his car. "It's not your fault."

Jimin was sitting shotgun with a sad look on her face, her eyes seemingly glued to Jin's phone that was tracking Tae's location.

"I just hope she's okay," she said just above a whisper, closing her eyes to keep the tears from falling.

A call came through Jin's speakers, but the contact was unknown. Jin answered anyways, "hello?"

 _"Guys, it's me,"_ Tae's voice filled the car and Jimin was at full attention now.

"Oh, my--Tae, where are you?!" she sobbed out. "What is happening?!"

 _"I can't really explain anything just yet, but I will, I promise,"_ Tae rushed out. _"Meet me in the parking garage of the Staten Island ferry."_

She hung up before they could get another word in, but they did as she asked and Jin drove to their destination. As they pulled into the garage, Kook was leaving on his bike.

He met Jin's eyes for a split second before flipping his face shield down and speeding off. Jimin watched the bike until it could no longer be seen and they were deeper into the garage.

Tae had stepped out from behind a pillar, the sparkles in her dress flashing with the headlights. Jimin was the first to get out. Before Jin had even fully stopped the car, she was climbing out and rushing to Tae.

"I'm so sorry, Jimin," Tae told her as they embraced tightly.

"I'm sorry, too, but it doesn't matter, I'm just glad you're safe," Jimin shook her head as she pulled away and Jin joined them.

"Come on, let's go," he said, him and Jimin both turning to walk back to the car.

"I can't," Tae said, staying put.

"What?" Jimin asked.

"I have to finish this," she answered.

"Are you _insane_?" Jin furrowed his brows at her.

"This is never gonna end," Tae shook her head, "I mean, even if they leave me alone, they're just gonna do it to somebody else."

"We couldn't stop the game if we wanted to. There's no one to stop," Jin explained exasperatedly.

"It's just a bunch of anonymous people," Jimin added.

"What if they weren't anonymous?" she asked then. "Kook is doing a dare that will knock _AGUSTD_ out of the final spot."

"Tae, do you actually _trust_ this guy?" Jimin asked, only not as harsh as she had been earlier that night. "I mean, he's the one who got you into this mess in the first place..."

" _I_ got me into this mess," Tae replied to that. "Anything Kook is doing now, is to help me get out."

-

As Kook approached his dare destination **[50TH & 6TH AVE.]**, he couldn't help the wary feeling in his gut. He tried to let it go and focus on his tasks, but as soon as he reached the correct street corner, the screen changed again.

**[GO TO THE ROOF]**

Kook looked up then, and his eyes scanned the entire side of the skyscraper he stood before; all the way up to the top, where a crane stood tall and proud, making his heart sink in his chest.

A Watcher met him on the roof, his face hidden behind a camo ski mask. The only thing Kook could identify was the color of his eyes; a cold blue.

"You made it," he said as Kook slowly walked to the edge and looked down at the street below. He wished he hadn't, considering the way his stomach flipped at the thought of falling.

"Now climb the crane," the Watcher pointed the flash of his video phone up at the metal structure.

Kook did as told without another word, handing his phone to the Watcher, and moving to the ladder. He made his way up to the top as quickly as possible and, once he was somewhat balanced on the horizontal metal bars, he held onto the waist-high bar in the center of it as he walked out to the very end.

He grabbed onto a pole, where a little red light warned airplanes away from the top of the skyscraper. Then, a drone suddenly appeared from below, which would've scared Kook straight off the bars had he not been holding on as tightly as he was.

**[HANG FOR FIVE SECONDS]**

Kook's phone was attached to said drone and read the dare aloud for him as it simultaneously filmed him.

So Kook took a deep breath, having seen this coming the second he spotted the crane, and carefully lowered himself down between the bars, holding on to the lowest one with his eyes shut tight.

Until the same voice added, **[HANG WITH ONE HAND]**.

Kook shouted out in anger, knowing that the only reason the dare was getting so severe was because Yoongi had built up such a massive following through insane dares like this.

"Shit," he breathed, carefully letting his legs unwrap from around the bar, until the only way he was managing to stay up, was by the sheer strength of his arms.

It was probably a good thing that he visited the gym so often.

He hurried, focusing all of his strength into one arm as he let go of the bar with his left hand. "One... two... three... four... _five_!!!" he shouted, bringing his middle finger up to flip off his livestream.

**[DARE COMPLETE]**

He managed to swing his legs back up and tangle them between the bars, to which he sat there at the top of the crane, until he caught enough of his breath to safely climb back down.

**[YOU ARE IN THE FINALS]**

**[WATCHERS WILL FIND YOU ON THE** **_F_ ** **TRAIN]**

-

"I can do it, I just need your help," Tae begged her two friends.

"What do you need us to do?" Jin sighed, having no shame in knowing that the only reason he was even considering this was because it was Tae.

"You said the game is open source, right? Do you think you can change its code?"

"It's gonna take time..." he warned.

"Chim, could you buy us that time?" Tae asked.

"I... I can try...?" Jimin shrugged, unaware of how she was supposed to do that, until Tae began to explain her plan in full detail.

Jin finally revealed that they had stopped by Tae's apartment to gather clothes for her. Once they had found out that she snitched, they were in the car and scouring the city trying to locate her so she wouldn't be hurt.

Jin figured they were too late, considering the gash in Tae's cheek.

None of them knew what kind of tasks lay ahead at the finals, which is why Tae was grateful to discover they had brought her a hoodie and jeans; things that were _much_ easier to move around in than the party dress she'd been wearing all night.

Once they had gone over the entire plan, making sure there were no kinks in detail, Tae announced that she had to leave. "Jimin?" she said before the girl could climb back into Jin's car.

"Yeah?"

"Use a payphone," she told her.

Then Jimin was tapping the side of her nostril, which Tae copied in response before turning to walk away again. She watched her friends drive away, then pulled her hood up as she waited for the elevator to take her down and out of the parking garage.

She speed walked into the front doors of the ferry station and rode the escalators up to the boarding gates where the side-scrolling announcement board read, **GET ON THE FERRY TAE. WATCHERS WILL FIND YOU.**

-

"Get your ass over here, Jin," Namjoon's voice could be heard through Jin's phone, as he sat on the hood of his car. "You don't have a lot of time."

"Okay, yeah, we're on our way right now," Jin replied, as he watched Jimin hang up the pay phone and begin to cross the street to join him again. "See you soon," he said before hanging up and standing. "How'd it go?" he asked Jimin.

"It went," she replied simply.

"It went?" he asked, as they got into the car again.

"Yeah," she nodded. "I think this is gonna work."

"It better."

-

Jimin was a bit confused when they parked beside an old, run down garage. There was a little neon blue cloud right above a tiny screen in the brick wall beside the huge door.

Jin pressed his thumb against the screen and the door immediately opened, revealing something Jimin didn't even know existed.

It looked like some sort of party, only the people there weren't drinking or dancing. They were playing a variety of different games.

Every light colored thing was illuminated in blue by the neon lights that hung above, other than that it was dark. Jimin followed Jin deeper and finally had to ask, "what is this place?"

"Fastest internet in New York City," Jin answered as he let himself into another room and was immediately greeted by his friend.

"Hey, Jin!" Namjoon said excitedly as he stood from his desk and walked to them.

"Hey, man, we made it," Jin replied.

"Let's get this started. You ready?"

"Is the bot net up and running?"

"Yeah, of course," Namjoon answered, bumping fists with him before Jin took a seat at an empty desk, a powered down laptop waiting for him to open it. "I just gotta enter it into the system."

"Oh, and this is Jimin," Jin introduced them, "obviously," he chuckled.

"Hey, welcome to _The Cloud_ ," Namjoon told her. "Sucks that you had to bail."

"Alright," Jin said once he was signed in, "let's take this thing down."


	11. ten

"Okay, so how does this work?" Jimin asked as she stared at the computer screen over Jin's shoulder. All she saw was a bunch of gibberish and symbols.

"It's like _Wikipedia_ , where anybody can edit the code, but a majority has to approve it first. The bot net can outvote everyone," he gestured vaguely to Namjoon's desktop computer that he was typing away on.

"I got an army of bots here waiting for orders," Namjoon told them right before Jin received another phone call from Tae's mother.

"Jin, where is Tae?" was the first thing she asked. "Why won't anybody explain this to me?"

"I'm gonna give you an address," Jin replied, "if you meet me here, I will explain everything."

-

Tae was met with a Watcher on the ferry as expected, wearing the same type of ski mask as the one who met Kook on the roof.

He had a taped up paper bag in his hand and gestured for Tae to follow him. She speed walked after him, watching him pull the mask off and set it down on a table along with the paper bag before rounding the corner and seeming to disappear.

Tae was just about to walk up and grab them when a security guard had returned to his post which happened to conveniently be _right_ _beside the items in question_.

She paused, watching him raise a brow at the sight of the ski mask, lifting and studying it, completely unaware of the brown bag that was beneath it.

As he glanced side to side to see if there was anybody suspicious nearby, Tae quickly walked past him, snatching the bag and stuffing it under her bulky hoodie before walking off without another glance backwards.

She spent the rest of the trip across the water in an empty seating section and had even peaked into the bag, wishing she hadn't as soon as she did so.

Once off the boat and onto land, neon arrows directed her to her final location; a massive arena that sat right at the water's edge.

A man in a hoodie stood posted in front of the gates, only his zipped all the way up, allowing only his eyes to be seen.

"Ticket," the guy said flatly, holding a hand out expectantly.

Tae handed over the paper bag, letting him open it and pull out the contents; _a revolver_.

He popped the cylinder to the side to count the bullets before flicking it closed again and handing the gun back.

"Better hurry up," he warned her politely, his attitude seeming to lighten a bit once he discovered she was a finalist and not just another Watcher.

Maybe he felt sympathetic, but Tae didn't worry about that much longer. A crowd of masked Watchers filmed her from the second she walked in the gates until she was walking out onto the grassy field and the Watchers that filled the stands lit up in a roar of applause.

She felt like she was in a colosseum, just waiting for the lion to come out and tear her to pieces.

Only in this case, the lion was Kook and she could only hope he would stay true to his word by letting her win.

Drones zoomed above the arena, filming from the air for the Watchers at home.

"Tae," Kook's voice distracted her from the aerial cameras once he stepped onto the field.

"Kook," she replied, and the two of them rushed to meet each other in the direct center of the arena.

**[FINALISTS, BACK UP]**

_Nerve_ 's default bot voice demanded that they separate from the gigantic speakers that were posted all around the hollow building.

They stared at each other sadly, holding the eye contact as they both slowly backed away from each other.

**[STOP]**

They did.

"How many bots do we have?" Jin asked from where he watched the finals via drone livestream.

"Not enough yet, but we are getting there," Namjoon replied, his fingers seeming to move across the keys faster than the speed of light.

**[PLAYERS, SHOW US YOUR WEAPONS]**

Tae swallowed thickly, as she pointed the revolver towards the sky, and Kook promptly did the same with a glock he'd retrieved from the back of his pants.

The crowd cheered at this and Kook could feel his heartbeat in his throat. A million thoughts were racing through his mind but the only one he could directly focus on was Tae.

**[FIRST TO SHOOT THEIR OPPONENT WINS]**

The Watchers were even louder this time around, making Tae and Kook feel sick to even be around any of them.

Kook rubbed at his face with one hand, hoping to open his eyes and find this was all just a dream, but that wasn't the case and that absolutely terrified him.

He couldn't shoot Tae. He just couldn't.

**[20 SECONDS ON THE CLOCK]**

Tae's eyes widened even further with fear, their chests rising and falling with their panicked breaths.

"Twenty seconds?!" Jin furrowed his brows when he heard this, "Namjoon I need backup!"

"It's alright, Tae," Kook told her as calmly as possible. Tae envied his courage. "Just raise your gun. Raise it slowly and just shoot me in the shoulder. It'll be fine."

"What if I miss?" Tae teared up, gripping the handle of the revolver tightly in her fist. "I don't think I can do this."

"Just shut up and play the game!" a Watcher shouted, making the rest laugh and cheer.

Then, Kook glanced up at the countdown that had swiftly dropped to ten seconds, "Tae, you have to hurry. We're running out of time."

Tae shook her head again.

"You have to do this! It's the only way the game will end! And then you can walk away!" he said.

**[FIVE]**

So Tae sobbed, shakily raised the gun, and tried her best to aim for his shoulder like he told her to.

**[FOUR]**

Tae slipped her finger in front of the trigger.

**[THREE]**

Kook closed his eyes, and tilted his head to the side, in an attempt to make it a little easier for her to aim.

**[TWO]**

A single shot rang out, silencing the crowd and the clock, but Kook didn't feel anything.

He opened his eyes just in time to watch Tae shoot the bullet into the grass instead, a tiny cough of dirt spitting up because of it.

"I'm not doing this," Tae tossed the gun to the ground and turned to walk off the field.

"Tae, wait! You can't--" Kook began, but he was interrupted by another gunshot.

This time from the crowd.

Everyone's heads turned towards the source of the sound; a single masked man with his arm outstretched towards the sky, another simple pistol clutched in the same hand.

"I'll do it!" he shouted out, the arena erupting in ecstatic shouts, happy that someone was making this year's finals more interesting.

"Shit!" Jin exclaimed.

"Nonono!" Namjoon added in a panic, "they're onto the bots! They're blocking all our foreign IPs!"

"Jin, do something!" Jimin urged him, as she watched the masked stranger walk out onto the grass, waving his gun in Tae's face like it was a toy.

"Did y'all miss me?!" the man shouted, as he yanked the mask off to reveal himself to everyone as _AGUSTD_. "I say we do that dare again... with someone who's _really_ ready to play," he added, pointing the weapon towards Kook this time.

So Kook slowly raised his arms, and glared at his old friend, as he reluctantly dropped his glock.

"Don't do it, Yoongi. It's not worth it, man," he tried, voice quiet enough for only him to hear it.

"Stop!" Tae cried as she stepped between them, making Yoongi laugh incredulously.

"Are you fucking _insane_?! Back up!" he shouted at her.

Then, he was aiming the barrel at her again, and Kook wasn't having it.

"Hey, _stop_!" Kook shouted as he moved to stand between them instead, putting his hands up in front of Yoongi.

"Is this what you really want?! For us to _kill each other_?!" Tae turned to shout at the Watchers then.

"Of _course_ that's what you want!" Yoongi laughed at that, gesturing for them to make some more noise.

"You think that takes _nerve_?!" she mocked the game itself, just as she mocked the rest of them. "Why don't you take off your masks and show yourselves, _huh_?!"

Tae turned to a single Watcher, " _you_! Take off your mask! Yeah, _you_! What's your name?!"

The Watcher was silent, just as expected, so Tae moved on.

"It's easy to be brave in a crowd! Hiding behind your screen names!" her voice was wrecked, but that wasn't going to stop her, "but don't you see, that whether you're anonymous or not, you're _all_ still responsible for what happens tonight?! Even if you are just _watching_?!"

"Are you really believing this _bullshit_?!" Yoongi shook his head at that. "Play to win! _Play. To. Win_!"

"You guys really want one of us to _die_?!" Tae asked incredulously, "for a _game_?!"

" _Yes_!" Yoongi sighed exasperatedly, before gesturing to the enthusiastic crowd. " _Yes_!"

Tae's jaw set when she looked at the third-placed Player then.

"Then _shoot me_ ," she spat at him like venom. "I _dare_ you."

So Yoongi laughed once more, "who wants me to shoot her?! Who wants _me_ to shoot _her_?!"

"Jin!" Tae's mother cried out once he let her into the building. "Where is Tae? What is this game? Somebody give me answers!" she immediately rushed back towards the flat screen, where she could clearly see that her daughter was in some sort of a standoff. "What are you doing?! You'd all better tell me right now or I'm calling the police," she threatened.

"Whoa! No! _No_ cops!" Namjoon chuckled nervously, hastily gesturing for Jin to _do something_.

**[SHOOT TAE?]**

**[YES]** OR **[NO]**

"SAY NO!!!" Kook desperately screamed at the crowd, running around the arena like a madman in hopes that they would listen. "SAY _NO_!!!"

"Guys, vote no!!" Jin called out to everyone at _The Cloud_ who was Watching.

"VOTE YES!" Yoongi shouted, against Tae and Kook's wishes. "VOTE YES! Come on! Let's have a bit of anarchy!"

"We're getting around them!" Namjoon announced suddenly and excitedly, "the IPs are coming in even faster!"

"Tae, you need to go!! Right now!!" Kook rushed to her, just as the voting time ran out.

**[SHOOT TAE?]**

**_[YES]_ **

With that, Yoongi simply smirked, before he raised his gun toward Tae once more and promptly pulled the trigger.

Then, Tae's body whipped backward, and Kook cried out in horror, as he barely managed to catch her before she could fall to the ground. 

" _NO_!!!" her mother screamed, leading Jimin to wrap her arms around the older woman, in an attempt to shield her from watching any further.

"PLEASE, _PLEASE_!!!" Kook cried from where he'd fallen to his knees with Tae in his arms, and he cupped her face with one of his hands to keep her head up, as he desperately attempted to shake her from her unconsciousness with the other. "NO, TAE, _PLEASE_!!!"

Jin turned to Namjoon then, gave a simple command, "go," and Namjoon tapped the enter key, sending the bot net to work, now that it had successfully booted up.

Within mere seconds, cellphones all around the city began to vibrate and ring, and every single one of the anonymous Watchers' guest usernames were immediately changed to their full legal names, including middle initials.

 **[YOU ARE AN ACCESSORY TO MURDER]** , read every single _Nerve_ member's screen, making the entire arena fall silent.

**[SIGN OUT?]**

Everyone began to sign out then, clicking **_[OK]_** as if that would change anything--as if signing out of the app would bring back the person they wanted to see killed.

Regardless, _Nerve_ accounts everywhere were promptly terminated, and the Watchers fled the arena before anything else could happen.

Most of them were just scared that they were going to be arrested more so than guilty for what they did.

Yoongi stayed, however, pulling out his phone and livestreaming as he approached Kook and Tae.

Kook squinted a bit, as he looked up at Yoongi past the light of his phone, but his eyes and facial expression remained empty of anything but pain and anger.

In fact, he immediately reached for the glock he tossed to the grass, before he pointed it directly at Yoongi's face, fully prepared to shoot.

" _No_!"

Kook's eyes widened when the gun was suddenly knocked from his hand, not by Yoongi, but by the girl in his arms that had led everyone to believe that she'd just been killed.

"Oh, my God!!!" Tae's mother sobbed, falling to her knees when she saw that her baby was okay, to which Jimin supportively held onto her shoulder, as she sighed a shaky breath of relief at her side.

"No! It's okay, it's okay!" Tae shook her head, as Kook's mouth hung open in shock. "I'm okay," she assured him.

"Y-You--" Kook stuttered out, before he was pulling her to his chest, arms wrapped tightly around her.

"I'm so sorry, Kookie," Tae sniffled, as she held onto him just as tightly.

So Kook took a deep breath to try and calm down, allowing himself to enjoy the familiar feeling of her embrace for a moment, before he reluctantly pulled away from it.

He looked up at Yoongi then.

"Y-You were in on this?"

"It was her plan, man," Yoongi raised his hands innocently; one holding the gun, the other holding his phone. "Jimin called me earlier. That's why I'm here."

"But... the gun? What?"

"Blanks, bro," Yoongi promised, tossing the gun to the side to show that he really wasn't going to hurt anybody.

"But...?" Kook brought his hand up from Tae's side, his fingertips covered in red.

So Tae held his hand in both of hers, looking him in the eyes as she assured him that, "it's fake."

"Oh, my God," Kook laughed quietly, despite the tears in his eyes, and hugged her once more, just grateful that they were both still alive.

When they pulled away, Yoongi offered Tae a hand and helped her to her feet.

"You scared me," Tae giggled.

" _You_ scared _me_ ," he replied with a modest smile, before he looked down at Kook and helped him onto his feet as well. "We cool?"

Kook nodded.

"Yeah," he smiled, sniffling quietly as Yoongi clapped his hand against his and pulled him into a quick embrace. They patted each other's backs before moving apart.

"We're free," Kook thought aloud.

Yoongi nodded in agreement, instantly feeling the relief wash over him, before he pointed at Tae and sent her an impressed wink.

"She's a badass," he told Kook, "watch out for her."

So Kook looked back at her with a proud look on his face, which had Tae excitedly rushing into his arms once again and, with a simple press of the **_[_** ** _OK]_** button, _AGUSTD_ 's _Nerve_ profilewas officially signed out, for good.


	12. epilogue

"It's crashing," Namjoon said, his lips parting as he watched the _Nerve_ site glitch out before completely disappearing from view.

"Ooh! And _Nerve_ is officially _offline_!!" he announced as he watched any trace of _Nerve_ coding disappear from existence as well, causing the entire building full of hackers to cheer excitedly.

"You guys are some of the dumbest smart kids I know," Tae's mother laughed, but it was all in good fun. The hackers simply laughed along.

"I'm so sorry," Tae apologized to Kook--for what was probably the millionth time--as they sat together on the waterfront, but he just shook his head.

"No, no. _I'm_ sorry... for bringing you into all of this," he frowned, reaching for Tae's hands so he could hold them in his own. "I just--I wish we could've met some other way..."

Tae smiled fondly as she watched his thumbs gently rub over her knuckles, but she just shrugged and told him, "I don't."

"You're the man," Jin told Jimin, shaking his head in awe of how well she handled everything.

"And _you_ ," Jimin smiled at him in return, "what a rockstar."

"Looks like I can get all your money back," Namjoon told Tae's mom. "They don't call me the hacker king for nothin'."

"Who calls you that?" Jin laughed, making Namjoon shake his head.

"Thank you so much," she replied regardless, "all of you, for all of this."

"It was all your daughter's idea," Jimin shrugged modestly, and a proud smile spread on her face, as they all watched Kook & Tae sit together by the water, hand in hand, looking completely smitten with one another.

Even Jin was happy for her.

The sun was finally rising, and the sky was a beautiful mix of colors, yet all Kook could look at was Tae; this incredibly brave person, who managed to save not only herself, but anyone else who would've inevitably been hurt or imprisoned by _Nerve_.

Kook & Yoongi had been trying to free themselves for _months_ , and there Tae went, dismantling the entire game _all_ _within a single night_ _,_ andfor that, Kook was eternally grateful for her.

"That was a pretty good first date," he told her.

"Is that what that was?" Tae giggled, looking at him with this glint in her eyes, as if he put the stars in the sky.

"By the way..." Kook began with a slight blush to his cheeks, "my real name? It's Jeongguk."

She smiled even wider at that, as she was finally able to call him by his actual name, instead of his screen name.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Jeongguk. I'm Tae," her voice was soft and sweet as she held out a hand for him to shake.

"It's nice to meet you, Tae," he replied with a laugh, shaking her hand momentarily, before he pulled her close and kissed her hard.

And _he never wanted to let her go again._


End file.
